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Theoretical analysis of the sensor effect of cantilever piezoelectric benders

1999; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 85; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.369314

1520-8850

Qingming Wang, Xiao-Hong Du, Baomin Xu, L. E. Cross,

Innovative Energy Harvesting Technologies

Piezoelectric bending mode elements such as bimorph and unimorph benders can be used as both actuation and sensing elements for a wide range of applications. As actuation elements, these devices convert electric input energy into output mechanical energy. As sensing elements, they convert external mechanical stimuli into electrical charge or voltage. In this article, the sensing effect of cantilever mounted piezoelectric bimorph unimorph and triple layer benders subjected to external mechanical excitations are discussed. General analytical expressions relating generated electric voltage (or charge) to the applied mechanical input excitations (moment M, tip force F, and body force p) are derived based on the constitutive equations of these bending devices. It is found that the clamping effect of each component in the bender devices decreases the dielectric constant. The bimorph bender has a higher voltage sensitivity than the unimorph or triple layer bender with the same geometrical dimensions. The dependence of voltage and charge sensitivities on the thickness ratio and the Young’s modulus ratio of the elastic layer and piezoelectric layer under different conditions are discussed and compared for the unimorph and triple layer benders.