Design, analysis and comparison of piezoelectric geometric arrangements

Abstract

In smart materials, piezoelectric materials are ever-increasing attention because the combination of two ferroic orders such as mechanical and electrical fields. These piezoelectric materials can be used as both sensor and actuator in energy harvesting, medical instruments, automobile and aerospace applications. Even in the research field, piezoelectric material is one of the highlited areas to enhance the output and sensitivity by optimizing the structure, shape, load and material. The present work focuses on the geometrical arrangements of a cantilever beam model to enhance the output voltages in short circuit and open circuit conditions with two piezoelectric materials. The design and simulation of seven different geometrical arrangements (Structure 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) are done using FEA-based COMSOL Multiphysics. PZT-5H Structure 2 (1 Substrate with 1 piezoelectric segment) gives a high output voltage of 181 V and 469 V in both short circuit and open circuit conditions respectively compared to BaTiO3. Also, a comparative study of eigenfrequency analysis and frequency domain analysis is carried out and comparatively structure 4 is giving high voltage at lower frequency 546.95 Hz. It is also observed that these structures are using less material and are cost-efficient.