An omnidirectional shear horizontal wave transducer based on ring array of face-shear (d24) piezoelectric ceramics

The non-dispersive fundamental shear horizontal (SH0) wave in plate-like structures is of practical importance in non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM). Theoretically, an omnidirectional SH0 transducer phased array system can be used to inspect defects in a large plate in the similar manner to the phased array transducers used in medical B-scan ultrasonics. However, very few omnidirectional SH transducers have been proposed so far. In this work, an omnidirectional SH wave piezoelectric transducer (OSH-PT) was proposed which consists of a ring array of twelve face-shear (d24) trapezoidal PZT elements. Each PZT element can produce face-shear deformation under applied voltage, resulting in circumferential shear deformation in the OSH-PT and omnidirectional SH waves in the hosting plate. Both finite element simulations and experiments were conducted to examine the performance of the proposed OSH-PT. Experimental testing shows that the OSH-PT exhibits good omnidirectional properties, on matter it is used as a SH wave transmitter or a SH wave receiver. This work may greatly promote the applications of SH waves in NDT and SHM.