Title:
Ultrasonic NDE testing of a gradient enhanced piezoelectric actuator (GEPAC) undergoing low frequency bending excitation

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dc.contributor.advisor Berthelot, Yves H.
dc.contributor.author Gex, Dominique en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Jacobs
dc.contributor.committeeMember Lynch
dc.contributor.department Mechanical Engineering en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2005-03-04T15:22:51Z
dc.date.available 2005-03-04T15:22:51Z
dc.date.issued 2004-04-07 en_US
dc.description.abstract Gradient Enhanced Piezoelectric Actuators (GEPAC) are thin piezoelectric plates embedded between two composites layers having different thermal properties. Compared to standard unimorph bending actuators, GEPACs offer superior performances for operations at low frequencies. Potential applications are in the area of multifunctional aircraft skins. In practice, delaminations or debonding within the actuator itself can occur, and it is highly desirable to develop an ultrasonic nondestructive method to monitor the integrity of the actuator in real time. For this study, the composite material is unidirectional Kevlar-epoxy, with fibers oriented at 90 and 0 for the upper and lower layers to achieve different coefficient of thermal expansion. A thin PZT plate is inserted between the two layers, and extended copper foil is used for electrodes on the PZT. The first objective of the research is to demonstrate that, by using segmented electrodes, one can simultaneously launch an ultrasonic pulse (1 MHz) for NDE testing while the actuator is undergoing low frequency actuation (less than 100 Hz). The second objective is to show that the ultrasonic signal can be used to detect damage induced during fatigue testing of the actuator. The third objective is to use the technique to monitor the integrity of a composite plate containing several embedded GEPACs. en_US
dc.description.degree M.S. en_US
dc.format.extent 2420020 bytes
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/5269
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Gradient Enhanced Piezoelectric Actuator en_US
dc.subject Composite
dc.subject Segmented electrodes
dc.subject Actuation
dc.subject Ultrasonic Non Destructive Evaluation
dc.subject Continuous monitoring of the intefrity of an actua
dc.title Ultrasonic NDE testing of a gradient enhanced piezoelectric actuator (GEPAC) undergoing low frequency bending excitation en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.corporatename George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication c01ff908-c25f-439b-bf10-a074ed886bb7
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
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