A piezoelectric planar composite apparatus to provide health monitoring of
a structure and associated methods are provided. The piezoelectric planar
composite apparatus includes a piezoelectric electric material layer,
multiple electrodes positioned in electrical contact with the
piezoelectric material layer, and multiple sets of electrode interconnect
conductors each positioned in electrical contact with a different subset
of the electrodes and positioned to form multiple complementary electrode
patterns. Each of the complementary electrode patterns is positioned to
form an electric field having an electric field axis oriented along a
different physical axis from that of an electric field formed by at least
one other of the complementary electrode patterns. The interconnect
conductors can be distributed over several electrode interconnect
conductor carrying layers to enhance formation of the different
complementary electrode patterns.