Browsing by Author "Karmarkar, Makarand Anand"
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- Smart material composites for magnetic field and force sensorsKarmarkar, Makarand Anand (Virginia Tech, 2008-07-25)Piezoelectric material based sensors are widely used in applications such as automobiles, aircraft, and industrial systems. In past decade, attention has been focused on synthesizing composites that can provide multifunctional properties, i.e., same material exhibits two or more properties. In this group of composites, magnetoelectric materials are particularly interesting as they provide the opportunity of coupling magnetic and electric field. Another class of composite materials that are being actively pursued is piezoresistive materials. Piezoresistivity refers to change in resistance with applied stress and these materials are promising for enhancing the sensitivity of current generation pressure sensors based on silicon. In this study, we focus on two composites systems: ferrite / Terfenol-D / nickel — lead zirconate titanate (magnetoelectric); and lanthanum strontium manganate (LSMO) — carbon nanotube (CNT) – silicon carbonitride (SiCN) (piezoresistive). Recently, Islam et al. have reported a magnetic field sensor based on a piezoelectric transformer with a ring- dot electrode pattern. In this thesis, this design was further investigated by synthesizing Terfenol-D / PZT laminate. The fabricated sensor design consists of a ring-dot piezoelectric transformer laminated to a magnetostrictive disc and its working principle is as follows: When a constant voltage is applied to the ring section of the piezoelectric layer at resonance, a stress is induced in the dot section. Then, if an external magnetic object is introduced in the vicinity of the dot section, the effective elastic stiffness is increased, altering the resonance frequency (fr). The variation of resonance frequency and magnitude of output voltage with applied magnetic field was characterized and analyzed to determine the sensitivity. The sensor showed a shift of ~1.36Hz/Oe over the frequency range of 137.4