The Horizontally Polarized Shear Waves in Multilayered Piezo-Composites with 2-2 Connectivity

Abstract

Following the advances in structural applications, composite structures are being used commonly in transducer applications to improve acoustic, mechanical and electrical performance of piezoelectric devices. Functional composite transducers for sensors and actuators generally consist of ceramics and polymers, the disadvantage of the brittleness nature of the piezoelectric ceramics can be overcome and the structures especially good for sensing can be allowed for building up. Propagation behavior of horizontally polarized shear waves (SH-waves) in piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composites with 2-2 connectivity is taken into account. The multilayer structures are consisted of piezoelectric thin films bonded perfectly with polymeric thin films alternately. The phase velocity equations of SH-waves propagation in the piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composites with 2-2 connectivity are obtained for the cases of wave propagation in the direction perpendicular to the layering and along the layering, respectively. Filter effect of this kind of structure and the effect of volume fraction and shear modulus ratio of piezoelectric layer to polymer layer on the phase velocity are discussed in detail, respectively. One practical combination of piezoelectric thin film-polymer thin film multilayer system is chosen to carry out the numerical simulation, some basic properties of SH-waves propagation in above multilayered structures are revealed.