Design and Analysis of Piezoelectric Based Cantilever Beam for Level Detection

Piezoelectric materials are frequently used in sensing, actuating, structural health monitoring, and energy harvesting applications due to their excellent coupling between mechanical and electrical energy domains. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the viability of using a cantilever beam bonded with piezoelectric material as an actuator and sensor to detect the liquid level in a tank. The PZT patch and flexible aluminum substrate make up the rectangular composite sensor structure, and its operating principle is that when liquid comes into contact with the vertically mounted piezoelectric excited cantilever beam, it encounters resistance to its vibratory motion because of the additional liquid mass and the liquid's viscous behavior. The study included Modal and Harmonic analysis with the aid of ANSYS to determine the best location for the PZT patch, formulation of a mathematical model of the cantilever beam structure using Euler-Bernoulli theory, and FFT plot generated using MATLAB to relate resonant frequency and generated voltage signals. A multi-section piezoelectric excited cantilever beam model was developed analytically and yielded a characteristic matrix that can be used to forecast the resonance frequency and vibration wave form of the sensor. The outcome demonstrated that the operating medium (air or liquid) and the depth of immersion have an impact on the dynamic behavior of the piezoelectric excited cantilever beam. For instance, as the depth of immersion (5–50mm) increased, the resonant frequencies of a transverse vibrating beam decreased by 5.48 Hz in water and 7.73 Hz in oil compared to air. A PZT excited cantilever beam structure was theoretically validated as a level-detecting device, in general, according to the thesis work. Keywords— PZT, sensor, level, liquid, cantilever, beam