Electromechanical impedance instrumented piezoelectric ring for pipe corrosion and bearing wear monitoring: A proof-of-concept study

In this paper, the concept of electromechanical impedance instrumented piezoelectric ring was proposed based on the degenerated multilayer piezoelectric/elastic ring transducer. The innovative application of such transducer for two typical issues, including pipe corrosion and bearing wear monitoring, was demonstrated. Two types of simplifications, the metal/piezoelectric ring transducers (I-type) and the piezoelectric/metal ring transducers (II-type), were presented to describe these problems. The corresponding theoretical models were given based on our previously developed multilayered piezoelectric/elastic ring model, and the results were validated through experimental studies. It is concluded that wall thickness change in the pipe or the bearing induce a shift in the peak and valley frequencies in the impedance spectra. The present work demonstrates the feasibility of using electromechanical impedance instrumented piezoelectric ring for pipe corrosion and bearing wear monitoring. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.