A novel shaped piezoelectric sensor for impact localization in plate structures

Impact localization in plate-like structures by means of Lamb waves is an important task in structural health monitoring applications. Passive-only networks of piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) can be exploited to this aim. In this work, a novel piezoelectric sensor for guided wave detection on laminate composite and metallic structures is presented. Such device is capable of revealing the direction of the incoming waves thanks to its peculiar shape. A small footprint, low power, and light weight sensor node was also implemented. This device is meant as a basic building block for smart structure passive sensor networks development. Elastic waves generated from impacts and propagating on the structure are recorded by the shaped transducer and then processed by a microcontroller embedded on the sensor node. The effectiveness of the proposed technology was assessed with an experimental validation.