Development of piezoelectric thick-film sensors to be embedded into adhesively bonded joints

Abstract

Techniques have been developed for making a unique type of piezoelectric thick-film strain sensor in the form of a ‘piezoelectric adhesive’ to be embedded into a bonded joint. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) powder is used as the active ingredient of the piezoelectric composite and epoxy resin as the matrix. The sensors have been fully characterised (i.e. type of piezoelectric powder, the surface area of the sensor, its thickness, weight fraction and the poling field) through an extensive testing programme in order to determine the optimum formulation for enhancing the sensitivity of the sensor. One of the main challenges was to effectively incorporate those sensors into the adhesive layer of a lap joint without greatly affecting the joint's mechanical properties. This application would allow the direct measurement of the stress field in a joint along the bond area, aiming at the optimisation of the adhesively bonded joint design as well as serving as an in-service structural health monitoring device. In the present work, the sensors were tested using the dynamic four-point bending test and preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, achieving a satisfactory performance of the piezoelectric sensors applied on a metal substrate.