Leaky lamb waves of a piezoelectric plate subjected to conductive fluid loading: an experimental study.

This paper proposes a novel experimental method for measuring the propagating characteristics of leaky Lamb waves in a piezoelectric plate surrounded by a fluid. It is a differential type of measurement and is very sensitive to the velocity change and wave attenuation of leaky Lamb waves induced by fluid-loading effects. Experimental measurements on an X-cut LiNbO3 plate immersed in a dielectric and conductive fluid have been carried out. The velocity change and wave attenuation of the leaky Lamb waves caused by dielectric and conductive loadings of the fluid have been experimentally determined. The measured data have been compared with the theoretical ones that are calculated from a partial wave analysis. For the wave velocity, very good agreements between the experimental and theoretical results are observed. For the wave attenuation, there are some discrepancies, but an important characteristic in the relationship between wave attenuation and fluid conductivity as predicted by the theory have been verified experimentally.