Influence of temperature on electromechanical responses of PZT-5H and output energy under shock loading

Abstract

Ferroelectric ceramics are of interest for engineering applications because of their electromechanical coupling and the unique ability to permanently alter their atomic-level dipole structure (i.e., their polarization) and to induce large-strain actuation through applied electric fields. Although the electrical output properties of the material at different strain rates have been studied by quasi-static and dynamic loading, most prior work has ignored the important influence of temperature on the ferroelectric behavior. Here, the experiments of impacting on PZT have been performed at the same loading conditions, different environmental temperatures (−40 °C, −25 °C, 0 °C and 25 °C) and circuit connection modes. The domain switching analyses have been conducted at the different temperatures. The results show that the electromechanical coupling coefficient increases linearly, and the energy barrier across the domain switching and coercive electric field increase with the decrease of temperature, but the piezoelectric coupling behavior was weaken and the residual polarization strength was reduced. Under electrical short-circuit, the energy density of the discharge accounts for about 1‰ of the irrecoverable energy density.