Published in Smart Materials and Structures
This work presents a wave field synthesis (WFS) system using a novel loudspeaker concept based on dielectric elastomers. In WFS, large numbers of densely packed, individual audio channels are controlled to recreate arbitrary acoustic scenarios in the listener space, (i.e. listener zones in a room where different audio content can be radiated in dif...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Alternative energy sources play a crucial role in Outback rail systems, where electrical infrastructure is unavailable for automated power devices used for traffic lights, surveillance cameras, sensors, and other safety equipment at railway stations and intersections. The current study proposes an innovative dual-kinetic energy harvester design to ...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Concrete piers are the key load-bearing components of wading bridges. Most detection equipment and methods focus on the surface defects of underwater piers, whereas the detection methods of internal defects are very deficient. This study proposes an ultrasonic computed tomography method combining linear travel time interpolation and simultaneous it...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) rotary piezoelectric motors often suffer from low positioning accuracy, complex excitation signals, and uneven preloading, limiting their application in precision drive systems. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel multi-drive pattern 3-DOF rotary piezoelectric motor, comprising a sandwich-type hollow...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Bridge strain is an essential monitoring index for small to medium span bridges because abnormal strains could be attributed to bridge deterioration or damage. Thus, an early warning method for detecting abnormal strains is highly desired. In this study, a temperature–strain mapping model for predicting the temperature induced strains was proposed ...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Recently, the demand for superior wearable strain sensors has been growing steadily with the widespread application of stretchable electronics. Based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT):polystyrene sulfonate, it has good compatibility with graphene doping. Herein, an uncomplicated and capable pressure sensor ...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
This work proposes a novel hierarchical modulation structure with gradually-changed impedance built by magneto-rheological (MR) fluid and investigates its wave propagation characteristics theoretically and experimentally. Based on the impedance tunable property of the MR fluid, applying multiple magnetic fields to MR fluid realizes the modulation o...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
A stretch sensor fabricated from a hydrothermally grown ferroelectric PZT film on titanium foil was developed. The unique sensor structure effectively converts the stretching motion of the PZT film to an out-of-plane deformation with a linear strain variation. An experiment with a strain-stretch displacement of more than 10% was conducted using the...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
Magnetorheological elastomers are smart materials, that have great potential for many technical applications like intelligent semi-active dampers or energy harvesting applications. We investigate soft- and hard-magnetic filler types in typical technical elastomers under cyclic deformation regarding their influence on the electromagnetic induction a...
Published in Smart Materials and Structures
A novel single-mode miniature standing wave ultrasonic motor (SUSM) is proposed. The SUSM uses the first extension vibration mode and second extension vibration mode of the stator to generate different diagonal vibration trajectories and drive the rotor to rotate in different directions through a single-phase signal. The bidirectional motion of the...
