Nonlinear piezoelectric dual sensor for the detection of angle and radius of a bending deformation

A non-linear piezoelectric dual sensor consisting of one-directionally and randomly aligned bi-axially grown zinc oxide nanorods was introduced for simultaneous detection of the bending radius and angle of bending deformation. The tendency of the voltage peak according to the bending radius and angle was experimentally measured and theoretically calculated using COMSOL Multiphysics (R). For the sensing measurements, the bending radius was set as the independent variable, and both the average voltage peak and the rate of change of the voltage peak value with respect to the bending angle were set as dependent variables. Based on these variables, an algorithm was designed to simultaneously recognize the bending radius and angle. Finally, a two-channel nonlinear piezoelectric dual sensor was fabricated and the bending radius and angle were successfully identified through the proposed algorithm with various bending deformations.