Effective properties of 1-3 piezoelectric composites: effect of polarization orientation

Abstract

Piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been widely studied because of their theoretical interest and technological applications. The 1-3 piezoelectric composites have recently received increased attention due to their potential applications in underwater acoustics and biomedical imaging. 1-3 piezoelectric composites have piezoceramic fibers, embedded in an elastically soft polymer matrix which is either piezopassive or piezoactive. Their electromechanical properties of the piezoelectric composites can be tailored to meet specific applications and their flexibility offers an additional advantage over the brittle monolithic piezoelectric. In this paper, we study the effects of the variation of the polarization orientation of the piezoelectric materials on the effective properties of 1-3 piezoelectric composites by using the micromechanics-based Mori-Tanaka method. Results for PZT/P(VDF-TrFE) composite show that the effective electromechanical properties are not significantly affected by the polarization orientation. However, the performance of the composite is significantly affected at low volume fraction of the piezoceramic fiber. These results can provide useful information for optimizing the design of 1-3 piezoelectric composites for specific applications.