Application of Hilbert-Huang transform for evaluation of vibration characteristics of plastic pipes using piezoelectric sensors

This paper discusses the application of piezoelectric sensors used for evaluation of damping ratio of PVC plastics. The development of the mathematical formulation based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition for calculating the damping coefficient and natural frequency of the system is presented. A systematic experimental and analytical investigation was also carried out to demonstrate the integrity of several methods commonly used to evaluate the damping of materials based on a single degree freedom formulation. The influence of the sensors' location was also investigated. Besides the commonly used methods, a newly emerging time-frequency method, namely the Empirical Mode decomposition, is also employed. Mathematical formulations based on the Hilbert-Huang formulation, and a frequency spacing technique were also developed for establishing the natural frequency and damping ratio based on the output voltage of a single piezoelectric sensor. An experimental investigation was also conducted and the results were compared and verified with Finite Element Analysis (FEA), revealing good agreement.