Temperature-dependent ferroelectric switching of 1–3 type piezocomposites: an experimental and theoretical study

Abstract

An investigation on the temperature-dependent behavior of 1–3 piezocomposites for different fiber volume fractions and bulk piezoceramics is carried out. Experiments are conducted on 1–3 piezocomposites at room and elevated temperatures under a high cyclic electric field to understand the behavior of these materials. Temperature-dependent effective properties of piezocomposites are measured using resonance technique. A simple analytical model based on equivalent layered approach is proposed for the determination of the effective properties of 1–3 piezocomposites at elevated temperature. A uniaxial constitutive model has been developed based on a thermodynamic approach, to predict the nonlinear behavior of 1–3 piezocomposites under thermo-electrical loading conditions. Volume fractions of three distinct uniaxial variants are used as internal variables to describe the microscopic state of the material. A nonlinear hardening parameter based on a Gaussian function is used to describe the grain boundary effects. The predicted effective properties are used in the proposed uniaxial model and the classical dielectric hysteresis (electric displacement vs. electric field) as well as butterfly curves (strain vs. electric field) are simulated and compared with experimental data. It is observed that the variation in fiber volume fraction and temperature has a strong influence on the response of 1–3 piezocomposites.