Characterization and optimization of polymer-ceramic pressure-sensitive paint by controlling polymer content

Sensors (Basel). 2011;11(7):6967-77. doi: 10.3390/s110706967. Epub 2011 Jul 4.

Abstract

A pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) with fast response characteristics that can be sprayed on a test article is studied. This PSP consists of a polymer for spraying and a porous particle for providing the fast response. We controlled the polymer content (%) from 10 to 90% to study its effects on PSP characteristics: the signal level, pressure sensitivity, temperature dependency, and time response. The signal level and temperature dependency shows a peak in the polymer content around 50 to 70%. The pressure sensitivity was fairly constant in the range between 0.8 and 0.9 %/kPa. The time response is improved by lowering the polymer content. The variation of the time response is shown to be on the order of milliseconds to ten seconds. A weight coefficient is introduced to optimize the resultant PSPs. By setting the weight coefficient, we can optimize the PSP for sensing purposes.

Keywords: optimization; polymer ceramic; pressure-sensitive paint.