Development of a low frequency omnidirectional piezoelectric shear horizontal wave transducer

Structural health monitoring (SHM) may offer an alternative to time based maintenance of safety critical components. Ultrasonic guided waves have recently emerged as a prominent option because their propagation carries information regarding the location, severity and types of damage. The fundamental shear horizontal ultrasonic guided wave mode has recently attracted interest in SHM because of its unique properties. This mode is not dispersive and has no attenuation due to fluid loading. In order to cover large areas using an SHM system, omnidirectional transduction is desired. Omnidirectional transduction of SH0 is challenging because of the required torsional surface stress. This paper presents a concept based on the discretisation of a torsional surface stress source using shear piezoelectric trapezoidal elements. Finite element simulation and experimental results are used to demonstrate the performance of this concept. The experimental modal selectivity is 17 dB and the transducer has a true omnidirectional behaviour.