Polypropylene based ferroelectret films exhibit a strong electromechanical activity and provide a promising solution for the air coupled ultrasonic (ACUS) transducers. Ultrasonic transmission between two air coupled ferroelectret transducers in dependence on the amplitude and polarity of the high voltage exciting pulse revealed a strongly non-linear electromechanical response of the ferroelectret transmitter which provides an increase in the transmitter efficiency. The authors present a simple model describing both promotion and competition of the piezoelectric and electrostriction contributions, as well as increase in the transducer constant under high voltage excitation. Enlargement of the inverse transducer constant of the polypropylene ferroelectret film by a factor of 4 was demonstrated. The non-linear properties of the polypropylene ferroelectrets result in a strong increase in their ACUS figure of merit under the high voltage excitation, which exceeds the results of their technological optimisation. Consequently, enhancement of the ACUS system transmission by 12 dB and signal to noise ratio by 32 dB was achieved.
Analysis of the dielectric and electromechanical properties of the cellular polypropylene ferroelectret films (EMFIT) evidences their high potential for the application in the air-coupled ultrasonic transducers. Simple prototype transducers, based on the EMFIT films, were developed and their high sensitivity was proved in the air-coupled ultrasonic experiment. Amplitude and delay time scanned images of the polyethylene step wedge with holes, obtained in both pulse-echo and transmission modes, demonstrate that non-contact ultrasonic imaging with EMFIT transducers is possible.
Rising importance of composite lightweight structures in aircraft and automobile industries increases the demand on reliable non-destructive testing methods for these structures. Air-coupled ultrasonic testing emerged to suit these requirements as it does not require any liquid coupling medium. In conventional air-coupled ultrasonic transducers, matching layers are used in order to decrease the impedance mismatch between transducer and air. Matching layers can be omitted by using ferroelectrets, which are charged cellular polymers having ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. Especially a low Young’s modulus, low density and low sound velocity of cellular polypropylene (cPP) are properties being required for well-matched air-coupled ultrasonic transducers.
In our contribution we show recent enhancements of cPP transducers resulting in focused sound fields and thus improved lateral sensitivity. The influence of different transmitter apertures was evaluated using measurements of the emitted sound field. Further we show a transmission of a test specimen of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) containing artificial damages. Results of focused transducers were compared to planar ferroelectret transducers, as well as to conventional air-coupled transducers.