Simulation‐Based Material Characterization of Isotropic and Direction‐Dependent Polymers for Use in Active Structure Assemblies

Abstract

Piezoceramic sensor and actuator assemblies are of increasing interest for various fields of application and attractive as part of lightweight design. As for the latter, polymers and fiber‐reinforced composites are appropriate as functional materials. Numerical simulations can be performed to predict mechanical and electrical performance of such active structure assemblies. Precise material parameters, however, are indispensable to obtain reliable simulation results. Manufacturer data is often not sufficient since it leads to major deviations between numerical simulation results and measurements. To enable reliable numerical simulations, the authors present a simulation‐based characterization approach for isotropic, transverse isotropic, and orthotropic polymer materials by means of adapting material parameters through an optimization algorithm. Frequency response function measurements of beam‐shaped test samples serve as input values. Thus, it is possible to identify values for linear viscoelastic material models and to provide direction‐dependent material parameters.