Piezoceramic sensors and actuators for vibration detection and control

The ability to detect the internal malfunction of machinery plays a very important part in all condition monitoring programs. Sensors to detect amplitude, velocity and acceleration are widely used in vibration detection and control. The cost of these sensors together with the signal conditioning devices can be very costly, In this paper a cheap and yet reliable sensors/actuators were developed to detect and control vibration, The sensor/actuator consists of piezoceramic (PZT) elements used in modem accelerometers. The results show that low cost PZT can be designed for optimum detection of bearing vibration and control of vibration response of flexible structures. However, for use as an actuator, addition studies were performed to understand the control characteristics. This paper presents the experimental results of a number of piezoceramics in terms of resonant frequencies and variation of PZT constants and vibration damping capability with temperature.