Sensitivity analysis of electro-mechanical properties of soft and hard piezoelectrics using the complex finite element method

The sensitivity analysis of the anisotropic properties for PZT-4 and PZT-5 have been performed using the complex variable finite element method (ZFEM) on a two-dimensional geometry. A thin film model is subjected to a uniform boundary load to induce mechanical strain yielding variations in the electric potential field. The numerical results from mechanical displacements and electric potential fields are verified against the solution from a commercial software. The first order derivatives obtained from ZFEM illustrate the sensitivity of material properties as design parameters for real time tunability of additive manufacturing processes. Results show that the largest sensitivities for the direct piezoelectric effect emerge from C 33 and the elastic anisotropic coupling of normal and shear stresses through coefficient C 13 followed by the dielectric and piezoelectric constants in the poling direction.