Effect of acoustic load on electromechanical characteristics of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers in broken rail detection

This article investigates the effect of acoustic load on electromechanical characteristics of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers in time and frequency domains. The acoustic load includes aluminum and steel bars. It is shown that when the length of the acoustic load satisfies positive integer multiple of half-wavelength, the first resonant frequencies generate a smaller increase. With the increase of the length and characteristic impedance of acoustic load, the first resonant frequencies, and the tailing length of the received signal are increased, while the receiving signal amplitude, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient, and mechanical quality factor are decreased.

Automated summary

This article investigates the effect of acoustic load on the electromechanical characteristics of sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers, finding that when the length of the acoustic load is a positive integer multiple of half-wavelength, the first resonant frequencies show a smaller increase. Additionally, as the length and characteristic impedance of the acoustic load increase, the first resonant frequencies and the tailing length of the received signal increase while the receiving signal amplitude, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient, and mechanical quality factor decrease.