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Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 25088

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Prof. Dr. Seung-bok Choi

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Department of Mechanical Engineering, The State University of New York at Korea (SUNY Korea), 119 Songdo Moonhwa-Ro, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon 21985, Korea
Interests: magnetorheological (MR) fluid; electrorheological (ER) fluid; polymer particles; magnetic particles; vibration control; haptic devices using MR/ER fluids; sensors and actuators using MR/ER fluids
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart material technologies have been commonly utilized in a variety of applications in various industries, including automotive company. In these applications, most smart materials are used as actuators, where smart materials can produce control forces to achieve desired performances by external stimuli, such as electric fields. Recently, the development of new sensing technologies utilizing smart materials has started to expand the applications of actuators and sensors as well. More specifically, a special magnetic field sensor using magneto-rheological fluids has been developed based on the resonance phenomenon of a flexible structure, a new frequency-dependent vibration transducer has been developed using the piezoelectric materials and a cost-effective strain sensor using electro-responsive papers. It is noted that the highlighting of sensors and transducers based on smart materials is represented by diverse measures, such as force, moment, torque, displacement, acceleration, strain, magnetic field, electric field, light intensity and temperature.

This Special Issue encompasses a broad range of sensors and transducers utilizing smart materials, including state-of-the-art technologies in sensing devices and systems.

Prof. Dr. Seung-Bok Choi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

Electro-Rheological (ER) Fluids based Sensors and Sensing Systems
Magneto-Rheological (MR) Fluids based Sensors and Sensing Systems
Magneto-Rheological Elastomers (MRE) Based Sensors
Piezoelectric Materials (PM) based Sensors and Transducers
Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) based Sensors and Sensing Arrays
Electro-Active Polymers (EAP) based Sensors and Sensing Networks
Electro-Responsive Papers (ERP) based Sensors and Sensing Systems
Light-Responsive Photo-rheological (LRP) Fluids based Sensors and Transducers

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 8383 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vibration-Based In-Situ Detection and Quantification of Delamination in Composite Plates

by Hanfei Mei, Asaad Migot, Mohammad Faisal Haider, Roshan Joseph, Md Yeasin Bhuiyan and Victor Giurgiutiu

Sensors 2019, 19(7), 1734; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19071734 - 11 Apr 2019

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4075

Abstract

This paper presents a new methodology for detecting and quantifying delamination in composite plates based on the high-frequency local vibration under the excitation of piezoelectric wafer active sensors. Finite-element-method-based numerical simulations and experimental measurements were performed to quantify the size, shape, and depth of the delaminations. Two composite plates with purpose-built delaminations of different sizes and depths were analyzed. In the experiments, ultrasonic C-scan was applied to visualize the simulated delaminations. In this methodology, piezoelectric wafer active sensors were used for the high-frequency excitation with a linear sine wave chirp from 1 to 500 kHz and a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer was used to measure the local vibration response of the composite plates. The local defect resonance frequencies of delaminations were determined from scanning laser Doppler vibrometer measurements and the corresponding operational vibration shapes were measured and utilized to quantify the delaminations. Harmonic analysis of local finite element model at the local defect resonance frequencies demonstrated that the strong vibrations only occurred in the delamination region. It is shown that the effect of delamination depth on the detectability of the delamination was more significant than the size of the delamination. The experimental and finite element modeling results demonstrate a good capability for the assessment of delamination with different sizes and depths in composite structures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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11 pages, 4117 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Photo-Rheological Fluid-Based Colorimetric Ultraviolet Light Intensity Sensor

by Kyung-Pyo Min and Gi-Woo Kim

Sensors 2019, 19(5), 1128; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19051128 - 05 Mar 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4456

Abstract

This study presents an introduction to a new type of ultraviolet (UV) light intensity sensor using photo-rheological (PR) fluids whose properties, such as color, can be changed by UV light. When the PR fluids were irradiated by UV light, colorimetric transitions were observed. Effectively, this means that their color changed gradually from yellow to red. The degree of the color change depended on the UV light intensity and was characterized by the hue value of the images acquired with a compact image sensor. We demonstrated that UV light-responsive capabilities can be readily imparted to PR fluids, and that the colorimetric responses to different UV light intensities can be used to measure the UV light intensities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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10 pages, 3768 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Laterally Movable Triple Electrodes Actuator toward Low Voltage and Fast Response RF-MEMS Switches

by Yasuyuki Naito, Kunihiko Nakamura and Keisuke Uenishi

Sensors 2019, 19(4), 864; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040864 - 19 Feb 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3306

Abstract

A novel actuator toward a low voltage actuation and fast response in RF-MEMS (radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems) switches is reported in this paper. The switch is comprised of laterally movable triple electrodes, which are bistable by electrostatic forces applied for not only the on-state, but also the off-state. The bistable triple electrodes enable the implementation of capacitive series and shunt type switches on a single switch, which leads to high isolation in spite of the small gap between the electrodes on the series switch. These features of the actuator are effective for a low voltage and fast response actuation in both the on- and off-state. The structure was designed in RF from a mechanical point of view. The laterally movable electrodes were achieved using a simple, low-cost two-mask process with 2.0 µm thick sputtered aluminum. The characteristics of switching response time and actuation voltage were 5.0 µs and 9.0 V, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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11 pages, 3357 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Compact Acoustic Rainbow Trapping in a Bioinspired Spiral Array of Graded Locally Resonant Metamaterials

by Liuxian Zhao and Shengxi Zhou

Sensors 2019, 19(4), 788; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040788 - 15 Feb 2019

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 5876

Abstract

Acoustic rainbow trappers, based on frequency selective structures with graded geometries and/or properties, can filter mechanical waves spectrally and spatially to reduce noise and interference in receivers. These structures are especially useful as passive, always-on sensors in applications such as structural health monitoring. For devices that face space and weight constraints, such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducers and artificial cochleae, the rainbow trapping structures must be compact as well. To address this requirement, we investigated the frequency selection properties of a space-saving design consisting of Helmholtz resonators arranged at sub-wavelength intervals along a cochlear-inspired spiral tube. The height of the Helmholtz resonators was varied gradually, which induced bandgap formation at different frequencies along the length of the spiral tube. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements of acoustic wave propagation through the structure showed that frequencies in the range of 1–10 kHz were transmitted to different extents along the spiral tube. These rainbow trapping results were achieved with a footprint that was up to 70 times smaller than the previous structures operating at similar bandwidths, and the channels are 2.5 times of the previous structures operating at similar bandwidths. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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10 pages, 3918 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improvement to the Carrier Transport Properties of CdZnTe Detector Using Sub-Band-Gap Light Radiation

by Xiangxiang Luo, Gangqiang Zha, Lingyan Xu and Wanqi Jie

Sensors 2019, 19(3), 600; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030600 - 31 Jan 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2768

Abstract

The effects of sub-band-gap light radiation on the performance of CdZnTe photon-counting X-ray detectors were studied using infrared light with different wavelengths in the region of 980–1550 nm. The performance of the detectors for X-ray detection was improved by the radiation of infrared light with the wavelengths of 1200 nm and 1300 nm. This was because the increase of the electron indirect transition, and the weakening of the built-in electric field induced by the trapped holes, reduced the drift time of the carrier, and increased the charge collection efficiency. To further analyze the intrinsic behavior of the trapped charge, the deep-level defects of CdZnTe crystal were measured by thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC). The deep-level defect indicated by the trap named T4 in TSC spectra with the ionization energy of 0.43 eV should be responsible for the performance deterioration of CdZnTe detectors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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14 pages, 3959 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Active Vibration Control of a Piezo-Bonded Laminated Composite in the Presence of Sensor Partial Debonding and Structural Delaminations

by Asif Khan and Heung Soo Kim

Sensors 2019, 19(3), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030540 - 28 Jan 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4049

Abstract

In this paper, the active vibration control of a piezo-bonded laminated composite is investigated in the presence of sensor partial debonding and structural delamination. Improved layerwise theory, higher-order electric potential field, and the finite-element method were employed to develop an electromechanically coupled model for the two types of damage (i.e., sensor partial debonding and delamination). The developed model was numerically implemented on a single-input-multi-output (SIMO) system to demonstrate the effects of sensor partial debonding and structural delamination on the ability of a constant gain velocity feedback (CGVF) controller to attenuate vibration. The two types of damage were assessed in terms of controlled outputs of the sensors, nodal displacements, and control input signals being applied to the actuator to suppress vibrations. The obtained results showed that the sensor partial debonding and structural delamination have opposite effects on the vibration-attenuation characteristics of the CGVF controller. The presence of partial debonding in the sensor made the controller less able to suppress vibrations because of a spurious sensing signal, whereas structural delamination increased the control authority of the controller because of the loss of structural stiffness that results from structural delamination. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Networks Based on Smart Materials)

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