Material Properties of Single Crystal Macro Fiber Composite Actuators for Active Twist Rotor Blades

Abstract

The Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) is the piezoelectric fiber composite which has the interdigitated electrode, rectangular cross-section and unidirectional polycrystalline piezoceramic (PZT) fibers embedded in the polymer matrix. The MFC actuator has much higher actuation performance and flexibility than the monolithic piezoceramic actuator. Moreover, the single crystal piezoelectric material exhibits much higher induced strain levels, energy density and coupling than those of polycrystalline materials. Thus, the performance of the MFC can be improved by using the single crystal piezoelectric fiber instead of the polycrystalline piezoceramic fiber. This study investigates the analytical modeling, material properties and actuation performance of the MFC using single crystal piezoelectric material (single crystal MFC). For the single crystal MFC, the mechanical properties are calculated though the classical lamination theory, and the Uniform Fields Model (UFM) is adopted to predict piezoelectric strain constants. In addition, the actuation performance of the single crystal MFC for the active twist rotor blade is studied. The material properties and actuation performance of the single crystal MFC are compared with those of the standard MFC.