Investigations of the Nonlinear Behavior of Piezoceramic Hollow Cylinders

This article deals with the investigation of the suitability of piezoceramic hollow cylinders for the exploration of electromechanical loading histories with multiaxial stress states. Analytical investigations give a first indication of a nonlinear distribution of the electric potential and, as a result, of an inhomogeneous electric field. These results motivate a deeper investigation by finite element calculations taking into account ferroelectric and ferroelastic hysteresis behavior. A phenomenological constitutive model representing these properties has been implemented into an open source finite element code and is used to simulate the poling process in the radial direction and mechanical loading in the axial direction. The results confirm inhomogeneous distributions of electric fields and stresses during and after poling. This limits the suitability of hollow cylinders for the investigation of the multiaxial electromechanical behavior of piezoceramics. A geometry variation is discussed to minimize the aforementioned effects.