Effect of the physical parameters of longitudinally polarized PZT tubes on PZT sensors

Lead zirconium titanate (PZT) sensors have been investigated in various fields. Related research focuses mainly on experiments, analyses are hardly conducted in PZT parameters and PZT sensor performance. In order to improve the PZT sensors' performance from PZT structural parameter design, simulations on PZT tube's deformations and resonance frequencies are conducted and analyzed, PZT-fiber Bragg grating (FBG) voltage sensors with different PZT tubes are established for validation tests. It is found in simulation results that the applied voltage range can be decided by polarized direction parameter, and the lowest resonance frequency of PZT tubes, which is decisive to sensor flat frequency response range, are closely related to tubes' radial parameters. It is also indicated in PZT-FBG sensor tests that PZT's coupled efficiency with other sensing elements is also an important concern to sensor performance. PZT tube parameter design suggestions for different sensing purposes and for PZT-FBG voltage sensor enhancement are proposed at last. Results in this paper can also be a reference for PZT sensors' performance enhancement with PZT tubes.