IP: 5.101.219.58 On: Tue, 01 Jan 2019 10:53:16 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers Delivered by Ingenta RESEARCH ARTICLE Copyright © 2018 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America SENSOR LETTERS Vol. 16, 161–167, 2018 Simulation and Optimal Design of Acoustic Field of Orthotropic Piezoelectric Composite Material Ultrasonic Phased Linear Array Actuator Ziping Wang ∗ , Xian Xue, and Xingjia Li Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China; National Center for International Research on Structural Health Management of Critical Components, Zhenjiang, 212013, China (Received: 17 January 2018. Accepted: 16 February 2018) The actuating characteristic of acoustic field of the array transducer determines whether the effec- tive focus signal can be excited, which directly affects the phased array ultrasonic beam. In order to verify the feasibility and superiority of the new type orthotropic piezoelectric composite material (OPCM) ultrasonic phased linear array actuator component, we analyzed the influence on focusing performance of the OPCM parameters using a simulation method, and the optimum size param- eters was obtained from the experimental results. The displacement characteristics of the OPCM component and the conventional PZT ultrasonic phased linear array actuator were compared by finite element analysis, which can provide a theoretical basis for the design and application of new type ultrasonic phased array transducer. Keywords: Orthotropic Piezoelectric Composite Material (OPCM), Ultrasonic Phased Linear Array, Transducer, Optimal Design, Acoustic Field. 1. INTRODUCTION At present, ultrasonic phased array technique is famous in structural health monitoring (SHM) field due to the advan- tage of fast detection speed, accurate quantitative analysis, low labor intensity, which is being more and more popular in the trend of the automation of nondestructive examina- tion (NDE). 1 As the front-end device for the mechanics- electric conversion, ultrasonic phased array actuator is a key part to the realization of whole ultrasonic phased array testing technology. There are many requirements and challenges in phased array actuator performance, such as the requirements of phased array electroacoustic perfor- mance, the acoustic proof performance adjacent elements, the challenges in less sidelobe and the precise control of delay and intensity. The material chosen for the ultrasonic phased array actuator has an important effect on the improvement of its actuative performance. 2 3 Combining PZT with the poly- mer material, the certain electromechanical properties of piezoelectric composite material can be enhanced, which can overcome the shortcomings of both of the two single ∗ Corresponding author; E-mail: wzpxx2004@126.com materials, having strong piezoelectricity, low brittleness, low density and low dielectric coefficient, easy to be made into a variety of complex products. 4–6 Due to electronic information technology and intelligent composite materi- als widely used, the development and application of func- tional piezoelectric materials has excited many researchers interesting. 1–1 type piezoelectric composite material not only has the superior performance of piezoelectric materials, but also has the advantages of polymer materials such as high sensitivity, low impedance, good flexibility, easy processing and molding characteristics, 7 8 etc. Through proper design of structure, the piezoelectric sensor can be orthogonal and thus capable of generating a certain directional consulting stress wave, and the sensing element can receive the signal in a certain direction, 9 10 thereby reducing the interference signal, highlighting the effec- tive feedback information from the defect and improving the signal-to-noise ratio and resolution. The single OPCM transducer can be used to detect damage in mechanical, aerospace and civil structures. When it used as a ultra- sonic phased array transducer, the ability of detecting variety of nondestructive evaluating minor defects are being developed. Sensor Lett. 2018, Vol. 16, No. 3 1546-198X/2018/16/161/007 doi:10.1166/sl.2018.3931 161