A new transverse piezoelectric mode 2-2 piezocomposite for underwater transducer applications

In this paper, we present a new type of 2-2 piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composite operated at the transverse piezoelectric mode (TP). The new TP mode piezocomposite has exceptionally high hydrostatic piezoelectric response, high reliability, and can be made at low cost. Based on the isostrain approximation, an analytical model is developed to analyze and optimize the effective piezoelectric and the effective elastic properties of the composite. Several composites with the new structure were fabricated and tested. The calculated and experimental results show good agreement. It is shown that a TP 2-2 composite made of PZT plates in a soft polymer matrix with elastically unidirectional face plates yields an effective hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient d/sub h/ of 6000 (pC/N) and a hydrostatic figure of merit d/sub h/g/sub h/ higher than 30000 (10/sup -15/ m/sup 2//N).<
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