Design of high-sensitivity acoustic emission sensor with dual-resonance wide frequency band based on piezoelectric nested disk-ring configuration

Achieving both high sensitivity and a wide operating frequency band is a challenge for acoustic emission (AE) sensors. This paper demonstrates the design of a dual-resonance AE sensor based on a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) disk-ring nested configuration. Firstly, the effects of the size parameters of the individual PZT disk and ring on the impedance spectra are investigated. The simulation results suggest that the radius of the disk and the width of the ring play more important roles in determining the resonance frequency. The bandwidth can be effectively extended by coupling the resonance peaks of the disk and the ring in the nested configuration. Moreover, the sensitivity is further optimized to a peak value of 99.5 dB over a wide bandwidth of 181–1000 kHz. The disk-ring nested configuration provides a solution for designing high-performance AE sensors.