A Refined Model for Predicting the 31-Coupling Effect of Piezoelectric Structural Fiber Composites

Abstract

Abstract A refined model is proposed to predict the 31-coupling effect of a piezoelectric structural fiber (PSF) and PSF composites. The PSF model consists of a piezoelectric shell, inner and outer electrode layers, and a piezoelectric inactive core fiber. The inner and outer electrodes provide a radial electric field passing through the piezoelectric shell, which leads to the axial deformation of the piezoelectric shell, the piezoelectric inactive core fiber provides the mechanical support to the brittle piezoelectric shell. Analytical expressions of the effective piezoelectric coefficient d 31 of the single PSF and the PSF composites are derived, the influences of aspect ratio of the piezoelectric shell, thickness of the electrode layer and PSF volume fraction, on the effective piezoelectric coefficient d 31 are demonstrated. The numerical results show that the model without electrode layers may lead to a significant error.