Fatigue Crack Detection Using Piezoelectric Elements

Crack detection using piezoelectric sensors have widely been reported in many research papers. In most of these studies, the cracks considered are generally artificially induced and the piezoelectric sensors are not subjected to fatigue loading. This paper presents a set of fatigue tests results demonstrating the effectiveness of piezoelectric elements in crack detection. The results presented were obtained from a series of high frequency fatigue experiments. The crack lengths were measured using an eddy current crack detector. These were compared with the results obtained from the piezoelectric sensors located on the test specimen.