Quantitative electromechanical impedance method for nondestructive testing based on a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever

The electromechanical impedance (EMI) method, which holds great promise in structural health monitoring (SHM), is usually treated as a qualitative method. In this work, we proposed a quantitative EMI method based on a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever using the sample's local contact stiffness (LCS) as the identification parameter for nondestructive testing (NDT). Firstly, the equivalent circuit of the contact vibration system was established and the analytical relationship between the cantilever's contact resonance frequency and the LCS was obtained. As the LCS is sensitive to typical defects such as voids and delamination, the proposed EMI method can then be used for NDT. To verify the equivalent circuit model, two piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers were fabricated and their free resonance frequencies were measured and compared with theoretical predictions. It was found that the stiff cantilever's EMI can be well predicted by the equivalent circuit model while the soft cantilever's cannot. Then, both cantilevers were assembled into a homemade NDT system using a three-axis motorized stage for LCS scanning. Testing results on a specimen with a prefabricated defect showed that the defect could be clearly reproduced in the LCS image, indicating the validity of the quantitative EMI method for NDT. It was found that the single-frequency mode of the EMI method can also be used for NDT, which is faster but not quantitative. Finally, several issues relating to the practical application of the NDT method were discussed. The proposed EMI-based NDT method offers a simple and rapid solution for damage evaluation in engineering structures and may also shed some light on EMI-based SHM.