Fundamental investigation on applicability of Piezofilm Sensor in sensing low-frequency structural response of bridges

Polyvinylidene Flouride (PVDF) is a film-type polymer that has been used as sensors and actuators in various applications due to its mechanical toughness, flexibility and low density. For the application of PVDF sensor in sensing structural response of bridges, the knowledge of PVDF sensor's performance in the low-frequency region is required. This study investigates the applicability of piezofilm sensor in sensing low-frequency structural response of bridges. Tensile tests using standard tensile specimens subjected to different tensile load levels and frequencies ranging from 0.1–20 Hz were conducted. The tensile test results indicate an excellent sensing performance of piezofilm sensor in the low-frequency region and at low-amplitude excitation. Transient excitations modulated from 1 Hz sinusoids with arbitrary amplitudes and durations were also generated. Piezofilm sensor also appears to exhibit a high consistency in measuring transient excitations with different arbitrary amplitudes and durations. It is shown that piezofilm sensor is capable of sensing low-frequency & low-amplitude response of bridges with a good accuracy.