Research on the Electro-Elastic Properties of the 2-1-3 (a Revised Version of 1-3-2) Piezoelectric Composite by Finite Element Method

摘要

For the applications of underwater acoustics and ultrasonics, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite has proven to be useful material given its attractive performance. As a special modified version of 1-3 composite, the 1-3-2 piezoelectric composite which is composed of 1-3 composite and a ceramic base layer has been studied a lot recently for getting greater stability than 1-3 composite. But there still exist shortcomings caused by limitations in the manufacturing process of both 1-3 and 1-3-2 piezoelectric composites. In this article, a 2-3 composite that consists of 1-3 composite and a ceramic cover layer instead of the ceramic base layer for 1-3-2 composite is proposed to loosen the fineness requirement of 1-3 or 1-3-2 composites in the manufacturing process. The finite element method (FEM) has been adopted to analyze the dependence of electric-elastic properties (the longitudinal velocity and thickness electromechanical coupling coefficient) of 13, 1-3-2, and 2-1-3 composites on the aspect ratio a (the ratio of the lateral periodicity of PZT rods to the thickness of composite). The results of the 2-1-3 composite with soft matrix show great improvement in loosening the fineness requirement of the manufacturing. Typically, the fineness of 30%-volume faction 2-1-3 composite can be reduced to 2.54% of that of 1-3-2 composite. Hence, the 2-1-3 composite offers greater feasibility for the design of various sensing materials. (C) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers