A piezoelectric fiber patch (PFP) is a transducer type that is suitable for guided-wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) due to its light, thin, and flexible characteristics. In our previous work, a PFP-based transducer design for selective excitation of the zero-order shear horizontal wave mode (SH0) was introduced (shear horizontal PFP (SHPFP)). In this work, two modified SH0 wave PFP transducer designs are proposed: the rounded corner design and the dual design. The degree of improvement is determined by a numerical simulation and the dual design-the design with the most promise-is experimentally realized. Laser Vibrometry measured the generated wave field, confirming the results from the simulation. The new designs can generate an almost pure SH0 wave. The dual design has a very strong directivity that is useful for several guided-wave-based SHM applications. The conclusions on the design's properties as a transmitter are also valid for its properties as a sensor due to the reciprocity of piezoelectric transducers.
Keywords: SHPFP; directivity; mode purity; piezoelectric fiber patch; shear horizontal guided waves; structural health monitoring.