Thickness and d33 effects on the energy conversion and actuation of piezoelectric unimorphs

Abstract eng:
Piezoelectric unimorph is composed of a piezo-layer (with top and bottom electrodes) uniformly laminated on an inactive flexible substrate. Because of their simple construction and flexibility, unimorphs are widely used as flexible sensors and actuators. Here we report a comprehensive theoretical framework to investigate the effects of the film-to-substrate thickness ratio on voltage, charge, and energy outputs when the unimorph is subjected to eight different boundary/loading conditions. For not so thin unimorphs, there is non-zero normal stress in the thickness direction (0'3), in which case (133 can play a significant role. Non-monotonic voltage and energy generation versus thickness ratio relations have been found in some cases and optimum thickness ratio for unimorph generator can be predicted. When the unimorph is actuated by voltage applied across the piezo- layer, non-monotonic actuated deflection versus thickness ratio relation is also found.

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