Identification of the impact direction using the beat signals detected by piezoceramic sensors

摘要

The beat phenomenon may be observed in a free vibration test with piezoceramic sensors. In contrast to exponential decay vibration, the beat signal is characterized as decreasing or increasing periodically. The beat phenomenon in the piezoelectric sensors is caused by the combination of signals of an oblique impact coming from two orthogonal directions of structures. An impact direction determination method based on the beat signal is proposed in this paper. The proposed method was verified through an impact test on a steel column specimen. The results showed that the proposed method can effectively identify the impact direction by using the envelope of the beat signal of the piezoelectric sensor.