Response of piezoelectric ceramic actuator under high electric field in bending mode

Abstract

High electric fields (≥ 0.1 kV/mm) are required to drive a class of the bending mode actuators for shape control and vibration control at various places. The static displacement of piezoelectric ceramic actuator under high electric field in bending mode is studied in this paper. Piezo actuated cantilever beam is fabricated and tip deflection with applied electric field is measured using confocal displacement sensor. Piezoelectric actuator is made of lead zirconate titanate (PZT-5H) ceramics. Finite element methods (FEM) based analysis of piezo actuated cantilever beam is done in COMSOL Multiphysics using linear constitutive equation of piezoelectricity. FEM results of piezo actuated cantilever beam are compared with the experimental results. The static displacement obtained from the experiments deviate from simulation results as the applied electric field increases. The deviation of experimental result from simulation results is approximately 20% at 0.85 kV/mm electric field.