Uniaxial stress dependence of the piezoelectric properties of lead zirconate titanate ceramics

Piezoelectric transducers are often used under compressive stress in smart structure and other applications and it is therefore important to know the properties of these materials as a function of applied stress. We have developed an experiment that allows us to find the piezoelectric charge coefficient as a function of uniaxial stress in the poled direction. Both dynamic and static measurements were carried out and the corresponding values of the charge coefficient d(33) were obtained as a function of applied stress. These coefficients differ from each other because of the different proportions of reversible and irreversible domain changes that contribute to them and each coefficient can be important in specific applications. Results on a range of PZT ceramics manufactured by EDO Corporation are presented; in general, they show a non-linear behaviour with an initial increase in d33 as the stress increases followed by a significant decrease. The time dependence of the measurement has also been investigated.