A low cost miniature PZT amplifier for wirelessactive structural health monitoring

Claudio Olmi, Gangbing Song, Leang-San Shieh and Yi-Lung Mo

Abstract

Piezo-based active structural health monitoring (SHM) requires amplifiers specifically designed for capacitive loads. Moreover, with the increase in number of applications of wireless SHM systems, energy efficiency and cost reduction for this type of amplifiers is becoming a requirement. General lab grade amplifiers are big and costly, and not built for outdoor environments. Although some piezoceramic power amplifiers are available in the market, none of them are specifically targeting the wireless constraints and low power requirements. In this paper, a piezoceramic transducer amplifier for wireless active SHM systems has been designed. Power requirements are met by two digital On/Off switches that set the amplifier in a standby state when not in use. It provides a stable

Key Words

structural health monitoring; wireless sensor network; amplifier; active sensing; miniature PZT amplifier.

Address

Claudio Olmi, Gangbing Song and Leang-San Shieh: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Houston, 77204, USA Gangbing Song : Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, 77204, USA Yi-Lung Mo : Department of Civil Engineering, University of Houston, 77204, USA

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