Numerical study to compare effective elastic, piezoelectric, and thermal properties of a gyroid triply periodic minimal surface and 0–3 piezoelectric composites with lead-free Ba(Ti 0.8 Zr 0.2)O 3 - x(Ba 0.7 Ca 0.3)Ti O 3 reinforcement

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present numerical work presents a comparative study of the effective elastic, piezoelectric, and thermal properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix and Ba ( T i 0.8 Z r 0.2 ) O 3 − x ( B a 0.7 C a 0.3 ) Ti O 3 (BZT-BCT) reinforcement-based piezo-composite at different volume fractions. The effective properties are significantly influenced by the connectivity of the reinforcement phase within the matrix. In the present work, two types of connectivity have been considered, viz. triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) interpenetrating phase composite and 0–3 connectivity. Five different volume fractions viz. 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% were considered. Effective properties were calculated at different volume fractions and for TPMS and 0–3 composite. Significant enhancement in effective properties was observed in TPMS piezo-composites compared to 0–3 piezo-composites. The present work attempts to highlight the importance of connectivity type and the combination of lead-free piezoelectric material BZT-BCT and TPMS reinforcement to achieve better piezoelectric performance.