Development of an apparent face-shear mode (d36) piezoelectric transducer for excitation and reception of shear horizontal waves via two-dimensional antiparallel poling

The non-dispersive fundamental shear horizontal (SH0) wave is extremely useful in guided-wave-based inspection techniques. However, the generation or reception of the SH0 wave by using a piezoelectric transducer is always a challenge. In this work, first, we realized the apparent face-shear (d36) mode in PbZr1-xTixO3 (PZT) ceramics via two-dimensional antiparallel poling. Then, we demonstrated via finite element simulations that the apparent d36 mode PZT wafer can behave as both a SH0 wave actuator and a SH0 wave sensor. Next, by using the apparent d36 PZT wafer as an actuator and a face-shear d36 0.72[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3]-0.28[PbTiO3] crystal as the sensor, almost a pure SH0 wave with a high signal-to-noise ratio was successfully excited in an aluminum plate from 180 kHz to 200 kHz. Later, experiments showed that the proposed apparent d36 PZT wafer can also serve as a sensor to detect the SH0 wave over a wide frequency range (160 kHz to 230 kHz). Finally, the amplitude directivity of the SH0 wave generated by the apparent d36 PZT wafer was also investigated. The wave amplitude reaches its maxima at the main direction (0° and 90°) and then decreases monotonically when the propagation direction deviates from the main directions, with the symmetric axis along the 45° direction. The proposed apparent d36 PZT wafer is very suitable for severing as SH0 wave actuators and sensors in structural health monitoring systems.