Design of PMN-PT-based dual-resonance acoustic emission sensor for partial discharge detection

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a dual-resonance acoustic emission (AE) sensor based on PMN-PT single crystal for partial discharge (PD) detection. The use of high-performance PMN-PT single crystal enhances the sensor sensitivity. Resonance peak coupling is utilized to increase the bandwidth of the sensor effectively. The effects of piezoelectric vibrator size, vibrator spacing, and external circuitry on the sensor output are analyzed using equivalent circuits and finite element models (FEM) for sensor design. After calibration, the self-made sensor has a peak sensitivity of 76.4 dB and a bandwidth of 20 kHz to 150 kHz, which meets the demand of PD detection. The PD detection experiments verify that the self-made sensors can accurately detect PD with a high signal-to-noise ratio of 15.8 dB. In the end, the reliability test proves that the sensors have good stability and temperature characteristics. Besides above sensor’s performance improvement, our design has the great potential to reduce the sensor’s cross section, resulting better suitability on curved surfaces. The feasibility of employing PMN-PT as a replacement for PZT in the fabrication of AE sensors is proven by these good test results.