Finite element modeling and experimental characterization of piezoelectric ceramic disk in air

Abstract

Understanding the piezoelectric disk characteristics and behaviors is essential to achieve a good system model and can increase accuracy and reduce measurement uncertainties. This work uses finite element modeling to compare simulations to experimentally obtained measurements of electrical and acoustic characteristics of the piezoelectric disk Pz27. The electrical measurements are performed with an impedance analyzer, which measures the electrical properties of the piezoelectric disk conductance and susceptance. For the acoustic measurements of the directivity, on-axis pressure, and 2-D horizontal pressure field of the piezoelectric disk, a MatLab app has been developed to automate the measurements and control the acoustic measuring setup. The sensitivity of the directivity related to small dislocations of the transducer has been studied. The finite element simulations compared to experimentally obtained results agree well, but somewhat low signal-to-noise ratio for some of the frequencies are observed. These results imply that the finite element simulation software used in this work proves to be a good tool for predicting measurements.