Smart mechanical transducers: A comparative study of piezoelectric materials

A comparative study of piezoelectric materials is used to measure the angular acceleration with a mechanical transducer. The piezoelectric materials used in this transducer were either a pre-polarised PVDF film, a pre-polarised PTCa plate, a pre-polarised PZT plate or a polymer/ceramic piezoelectric composite films of (PTCa:P(VDF/TrFE) 50:50vol%). The transducer consists of a circular plate with two masses connected mechanically and electrically between them. Between the masses and the plate (on each side of it) is glued a piece of piezoelectric material metalized and polarized. The main advantages of this type of transducers are their low cost compared with other sensors and that there are no moving parts. All the experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones, however the best results are obtained when a PZT transducer is used.