Research on the electro‐elastic properties of the 2‐1‐3 (a revised version of 1‐3‐2) piezoelectric composite by finite element method

For the applications of underwater acoustics and ultrasonics, the 1‐3 piezoelectric composite has proven to be useful material given its attractive performance. As a special modified version of 1‐3 composite, the 1‐3‐2 piezoelectric composite which is composed of 1‐3 composite and a ceramic base layer has been studied a lot recently for getting greater stability than 1‐3 composite. But there still exist shortcomings caused by limitations in the manufacturing process of both 1‐3 and 1‐3‐2 piezoelectric composites. In this article, a 2‐1‐3 composite that consists of 1‐3 composite and a ceramic cover layer instead of the ceramic base layer for 1‐3‐2 composite is proposed to loosen the fineness requirement of 1‐3 or 1‐3‐2 composites in the manufacturing process. The finite element method (FEM) has been adopted to analyze the dependence of electric‐elastic properties (the longitudinal velocity and thickness electromechanical coupling coefficient) of 1‐3, 1‐3‐2, and 2‐1‐3 composites on the aspect ratio α (the ratio of the lateral periodicity of PZT rods to the thickness of composite). The results of the 2‐1‐3 composite with soft matrix show great improvement in loosening the fineness requirement of the manufacturing. Typically, the fineness of 30%‐volume faction 2‐1‐3 composite can be reduced to 2.54% of that of 1‐3‐2 composite. Hence, the 2‐1‐3 composite offers greater feasibility for the design of various sensing materials. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:2384–2395, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers