Hyeong Jae Lee

High Temperature, High Power Piezoelectric Composite Transducers

Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and non-piezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. These composites have several advantages compared to conventional piezoelectric ceramics and polymers, including improved electromechanical properties, mechanical flexibility and the ability to tailor properties by using several different connectivity patterns. These advantages have led to the improvement of overall transducer performance, such as transducer sensitivity and bandwidth, resulting in rapid implementation of piezoelectric composites in medical imaging ultrasounds and other acoustic transducers. Recently, new piezoelectric composite transducers have been developed with optimized composite components that have improved thermal stability and mechanical quality factors, making them promising candidates for high temperature, high power transducer applications, such as therapeutic ultrasound, high power ultrasonic wirebonding, high temperature non-destructive testing, and downhole energy harvesting. This paper will present recent developments of piezoelectric composite technology for high temperature and high power applications. The concerns and limitations of using piezoelectric composites will also be discussed, and the expected future research directions will be outlined.

Scaling effects of relaxor-PbTiO3 crystals and composites for high frequency ultrasound

The dielectric and piezoelectric properties of Pb(Mg(13)Nb(23))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT) and Pb(In(12)Nb(12))O(3)-Pb(Mg(13)Nb(23))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PIN-PMN-PT) ferroelectric single crystals were investigated as a function of thicknessscale in monolithic and piezoelectricpolymer 1-3 composites. For the case of PMN-PT single crystals, the dielectric (epsilon33Tepsilon0) and electromechanical properties (k(33)) were found to significantly decrease with decreasing thickness (500-40 mum), while minimal thickness dependency was observed for PIN-PMN-PT single crystals. Temperature dependent dielectric behavior of the crystals suggested that the observed thickness dependence in PMN-PT was strongly related to their relatively large domain size (>10-20 mum). As anticipated, 1-3 composite comprised of PIN-PMN-PT crystals exhibited superior properties to that of PMN-PT composite at high frequencies (>20 MHz). However, the observed couplings, being on the order of 80%, were disappointedly low when compared to their monolithic counterparts, the result of surface damage introduced during the dicing process, as evidenced by the broadened [002] peaks in the x-ray diffraction pattern.

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting in Internal Fluid Flow

We consider piezoelectric flow energy harvesting in an internal flow environment with the ultimate goal powering systems such as sensors in deep oil well applications. Fluid motion is coupled to structural vibration via a cantilever beam placed in a converging-diverging flow channel. Two designs were considered for the electromechanical coupling: first; the cantilever itself is a piezoelectric bimorph; second; the cantilever is mounted on a pair of flextensional actuators. We experimentally investigated varying the geometry of the flow passage and the flow rate. Experimental results revealed that the power generated from both designs was similar; producing as much as 20 mW at a flow rate of 20 L/min. The bimorph designs were prone to failure at the extremes of flow rates tested. Finite element analysis (FEA) showed fatigue failure was imminent due to stress concentrations near the bimorph’s clamped region; and that robustness could be improved with a stepped-joint mounting design. A similar FEA model showed the flextensional-based harvester had a resonant frequency of around 375 Hz and an electromechanical coupling of 0.23 between the cantilever and flextensional actuators in a vacuum. These values; along with the power levels demonstrated; are significant steps toward building a system design that can eventually deliver power in the Watts range to devices down within a well.

Electroacoustic response of 1-3 piezocomposite transducers for high power applications

The electroacoustic performance of 1-3 piezoelectric composite transducers with low loss polymer filler was studied and compared to monolithic Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) (PZT) piezoelectric transducers. The 1-3 composite transducers exhibited significantly high electromechanical coupling factor (k(t) ∼ 0.64) when compared to monolithic counterparts (k(t) ∼ 0.5), leading to the improved bandwidth and loop sensitivity, being on the order of 67% and -24.0 dB versus 44% and -24.8 dB, respectively. In addition, the acoustic output power and transmit efficiency (∼50%) were found to be comparable to the monolithic PZT transducers, demonstrating potential for broad bandwidth, high power ultrasonic transducer applications.

Design of low-loss 1-3 piezoelectric composites for high-power transducer applications

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)/polymer 1-3 composites have improved electromechanical properties compared with monolithic counterparts, but possess a low mechanical quality factor, limiting their use in high-power transducer applications. The goal of this work was to improve the mechanical quality factor of 1-3 PZT/polymer composites by optimizing the polymer materials. Theoretical analysis and modeling were performed for optimum composite design and various polymers were prepared and characterized. 1-3 piezocomposites were constructed and their electromechanical properties were experimentally determined. The results demonstrated that the composites with high-thermal-conductivity polymers generally have degraded electromechanical properties with significantly decreased mechanical quality factors, whereas the composites filled with low-loss and low-moduli polymers were found to have higher mechanical quality factors with higher electromechanical coupling factors: Qm ~ 200 and kt ~ 0.68 for PZT4 composites; Qm ~ 400 and kt ~ 0.6 for PZT8 composites. The improved mechanical quality factor of 1-3 piezocomposites may offer improved performance and thermal stability of transducers under high-drive operation.

FLOW ENERGY PIEZOELECTRIC BIMORPH NOZZLE HARVESTER

There is a need for a long-life power generation scheme that could be used downhole in an oil well to produce 1 Watt average power. There are a variety of existing or proposed energy harvesting schemes that could be used in this environment but each of these has its own limitations. The vibrating piezoelectric structure is in principle capable of operating for very long lifetimes (decades) thereby possibly overcoming a principle limitation of existing technology based on rotating turbo-machinery. In order to determine the feasibility of using piezoelectrics to produce suitable flow energy harvesting, we surveyed experimentally a variety of nozzle configurations that could be used to excite a vibrating piezoelectric structure in such a way as to enable conversion of flow energy into useful amounts of electrical power. These included reed structures, spring mass-structures, drag and lift bluff bodies and a variety of nozzles with varying flow profiles. Although not an exhaustive survey we identified a spline nozzle/piezoelectric bimorph system that experimentally produced up to 3.4 mW per bimorph. This paper will discuss these results and present our initial analyses of the device using dimensional analysis and constitutive electromechanical modeling. The analysis suggests that an order-of-magnitude improvement in power generation from the current design is possible.

1-3 piezoelectric composites for high-temperature transducer applications

High temperature Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 /epoxy 1-3 composites were fabricated using the dice and fill method. The epoxy filler was modified with glass spheres in order to improve the thermal reliability of the composites at elevated temperatures. Temperature dependent dielectric and electromechanical properties of the composites were measured after aging at 250°C with different dwelling times. Obvious cracks were observed and the electrodes were damaged in the composite with unmodified epoxy after 200 hours, leading to the failure of the composite. In contrast, composites with >12 vol% glass sphere loaded epoxies were found to exhibit minimal electrical property variation after aging for 500 hours, with dielectric permittivity, piezoelectric coefficient and electromechanical coupling being on the order of 940, 310pC/N and 57%, respectively. This is due to the improved thermal expansion behavior of the modified filler.

Perovskite Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramics

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT)-based piezoelectric materials are the most widely used piezoelectric materials for electromechanical devices. However, due to the toxicity of lead, there is a strong interest in the development of environmental friendly lead-free piezoelectrics. Several classes of lead-free materials, such as barium titanate, bismuth and sodium titanate, potassium niobate (KNbO3) and their solid solutions, have been reported as alternatives to PZT, and they exhibit relatively high piezoelectricity through the compositional modifications, and, in some cases, comparable to those of PZT. However, solid solutions of these lead-free perovskite families are not yet suited to replace PZT because of their limited operational temperature range. This chapter reviews recent developments in lead-free piezoelectric materials. Origin of enhanced properties and thermal stability of these families are discussed.

High Temperatures Health Monitoring of the Condensed Water Height in Steam Pipe Systems

Ultrasonic probes were designed, fabricated and tested for high temperature health monitoring system. The goal of this work was to develop the health monitoring system that can determine the height level of the condensed water through the pipe wall at high temperature up to 250 °C while accounting for the effects of surface perturbation. Among different ultrasonic probe designs, 2.25 MHz probes with air backed configuration provide satisfactory results in terms of sensitivity, receiving reflections from the target through the pipe wall. A series of tests were performed using the airbacked probes under irregular conditions, such as surface perturbation and surface disturbance at elevated temperature, to qualify the developed ultrasonic system. The results demonstrate that the fabricated air-backed probes combined with advanced signal processing techniques offer the capability of health monitoring of steam pipe under various operating conditions.

Wireless Monitoring of the Height of Condensed Water in Steam Pipes

A wireless health monitoring system has been developed for determining the height of water condensation in steam pipes. The data acquisition in this system is done remotely using a wireless network system. The developed system is designed to operate in the harsh manhole environment and the pipe temperature of over 200 °C. The test method is an ultrasonic pulse-echo and the hardware that includes a pulser, receiver, a data processor and wireless modem for communication. Data acquisition and signal processing software were developed to determine the water height using adaptive signal processing and data communication that can be controlled while the hardware is installed in a manhole. A statistical decision-making tool is being developed based on the field test data to determine the height of the condensed water height under high noise conditions and other environmental factors.