Generation of thickness-twist modes in a piezoceramic plate

Abstract

In the present paper we investigate theoretically the generation of thickness-twist modes in a plate of piezoceramic material. The poling axis is chosen parallel to the plane boundaries of the plate. On one of the faces of the plate a finite number of cylindrical strip electrodes of vanishing thickness is present. If an electric generator is connected to the electrodes, piezoelectric thickness-twist modes are generated. Our problem is to calculate the amplitudes of the different modes and the input impedance of the transducer. To this aim we employ our integral equation formulation of piezoelectric diffraction problems that has been presented in an earlier paper. Once the resulting system of integral equations has been solved, the field distribution on the electrodes is obtained. Then the input impedance of the transducer can be calculated, and with the aid of appropriate integral representations the amplitudes of the different modes are obtained.