Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Embedded Piezoelectric Fiber Composite Sensors For Applications In Composite Structures, Hari Prasad Konka

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Health monitoring of the composite structures is an important issue that must be addressed. Embedded sensors could be an effective way to monitor the health of composite structures continuously and which could also avoid the catastrophic failures of composite structures. Piezoelectric-fiber-composite sensors (PFCS) made from micro-sized Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) fibers have great advantages over the traditional bulk PZT sensors for embedded sensor applications. PFCS as an embedded sensor will be an ideal choice to continuously monitor the stress/strain levels and health conditions of composites. This work presents a critical study on using PFCS as an effective embedded sensor within …