Material Orientations and Geometric Effects in Piezoelectric Actuators

Abstract

Piezoelectric materials are active materials that deform in response to both electrical and mechanical loadings. Traditional piezoelectric actuators are designed to exploit this deformation by aligning the material poling axes with the loading axes. However for complex loading or complex geometry this alignment may not maximize the desired actuation due to the anisotropic piezoelectric and elastic properties. A computational study of material and loading axes misalignment was completed to examine the performance of piezoelectric components. The study used finite element analysis to model difference geometries; a simple cylinder, an ASTM E8 tensile specimen, and a customized ASTM E8 tensile specimen. This study looked at electrical only and mechanical only loading. The material axes for each component is rotated from being aligned with the loading axes to various angles. The effect of rotating the material axes is discussed. Variations in stress, electric fields and deformations are noted.