Abstract
It is well known that the curing residual stress induced during a fabrication process has a great influence on the performance of piezoelectric composite devices. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the residual thermal stress of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric fiber aluminum (Al) matrix (piezoelectric fiber/Al) composites generated during fabrication numerically and experimentally and to understand the effect of the residual thermal stress on the electromechanical response. The three-dimensional finite element method was employed, and the residual stress generated during the solidification process of the Al matrix was calculated. The output voltage was also calculated in the analysis when putting stresses on the composite materials in the length direction of the piezoelectric fiber. It was shown that the cooling from higher temperatures increases the electromechanical conversion capability. Furthermore, we also performed the simulation, and we recorded the output voltage under concentrated load to investigate its application as a load position detection sensor, and we also discussed the influence of the position by changing the modeling with a different fiber position in the Al. The residual stress of hot press molded piezoelectric fiber/Al composite was then measured, and the comparison was made with the calculated values. The simulation results revealed that our model predictions reproduced and explained the experimental observations of curing residual stress. After this study, similar models of composite materials can be analyzed by this simulation, and the result can be used to design piezoelectric composite materials.
Highlights
In recent years, as humans recognized the importance of sustainable energy, increasing attention has been paid to piezoelectric materials for their applications such as in sensors, actuators, Sensors 2020, 20, 5799; doi:10.3390/s20205799 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensorsSensors 2020, 20, 5799 and energy-harvesting devices
After the piezoelectric composite was manufactured, electrical poling was necessary for achieving piezoelectricity
We examined the piezoelectric properties of the piezoelectric fiber/Al matrix composite under the residual stress in detail
Summary
As humans recognized the importance of sustainable energy, increasing attention has been paid to piezoelectric materials for their applications such as in sensors, actuators, Sensors 2020, 20, 5799; doi:10.3390/s20205799 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensorsSensors 2020, 20, 5799 and energy-harvesting devices. The recent advances in piezoelectric composite materials for energy harvesting applications have been summarized [1,2]. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is a widely used piezoelectric ceramic material; a distinctive feature of PZT is its large piezoelectricity; poor mechanical properties limit its fields of application. The development of piezoelectric composites helps to overcome some of the limitations of conventional PZT ceramics by improving their demerits, especially brittleness, lack of reliability and conformability [3,4,5]. Lead nickel niobite (PNN) and PZT particles dispersed in epoxy matrix (PNN–PZT/epoxy) have been fabricated as paint sensors on account of their low cost and weight [6], and the impact sensitivity of the sensor according to different poling conditions has been measured in order to determine the optimal conditions of poling time and electric field.
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