Studies on effective fiber and matrix poling characteristics of 1-3 piezoelectric composites

Abstract

An analytical model is developed to evaluate the performance of 1-3 piezoelectric composite where both matrix and fiber materials are piezoelectrically active. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of variations in the poling characteristics of the fiber and matrix phase on the overall thermo-electro-mechanical behavior of a 1-3 piezocomposite. The figures of merit (FOM) of the 1-3 composite as a transducer for underwater acoustics and biomedical imaging applications has been analyzed. The proposed model is capable of predicting the effective properties of the composite subjected to thermo-electro-mechanical loading conditions for different poling directions. The predicted variations in the effective elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric material constants are nonlinear in nature with fiber volume fraction. The influence of thermal effects on effective properties of the composite has been identified. The analytical results show that an appropriate selection of the poling characteristics of the individual fiber and matrix phases could lead to the development of a piezocomposite with significant effective properties