Modeling and characterization of piezoelectric cantilever in fluids at different temperatures

This paper introduces measurement and modeling of a piezoelectric beam used as a sensor in different types of liquids. It is immersed in different fluids at temperatures increasing from 20 °C to 50 °C. The working principle is based on detecting different resonance frequencies of the cantilever in different solutions. The oscillation of piezoelectric beam is measured using a vector network analyzer. An electrical equivalent circuit derived from a resonator model is used to simulate the experimental data. These calculated circuit constants have been related to physical properties of liquids under test. The combination of these liquids which includes non-conducting and conducting solutions, exhibiting low and high viscosity covers a good range of common physical properties of fluids. Main focus of this research is to explore the capability of piezoelectric cantilever as a liquid sensor with the influence of temperature. The equivalent circuit model has been proved to be viable to fit experimental data in non-conducting solution but less effective in conducting solution.