Acoustic and Electromechanical Behavior of 1-3 Piezocomposites

for Ultrasonic Transducer Applications

Q. M. B a n g and Xuecang Geng

Materials ResearchLaboratory and Dcpamnentof Electrical Engineering
The PennsylvaniaState University, UniversityPark. PA 16802

Abstract -A model is derived for the analysisofthe make use of the concenaic unit cell to approximate a 1-3
dynamic behavior of 1-3 piezocomposites. Based on this composite which is shown inFig. 1. Basedon this. the
model, the effective parameters and their dependence on ultrasonic properties relatedto the thickness resonance wl
l
i
the aspect ratio of the unit cell of a 1-3 composite, can be
evaluated. From the model we show that the mechanical
quality factor of a composite can be lower than that of both
the ceramic and polymer.The predictions are compared
Polymer
with experimental mults and the agreement between the
two is quite satisfactory.verified

I. ~ O D U c n o N

Piezcceramic polymer composites offer many

Fi.I . Schcnutie drawing of mlmir reU of 1-3 p i c r o e o m ~ i p
advantages over singlephase materials for many transducer
applications such as underwater sonar, ultrasonic imaging be evaluated and compared with experiment. We will pay
for medical and NDE applications. and stress senson [l],
specialattentiontothemechanical Q inacomposite
[2]. Thecomplementary properties of the polymer and
material
ceramic phases in theelectric and mechanical responses
make it possible to tune the composite properties over a
D.WAVE PROPAGATION IN AN UNBOUNDED 1-3 COMposm
wide range.
In the past twodecades. a great deal of effort have been For the unit cell shown in Fig. 1, the axial-symmetry
devoted to analyze and model the transducer performance
along the poling direction of piezoceramic (the z-direction)
of piezocomposites. nte model (quasi-static model) reduces this three dimensional problem to a two
developed by Smith et al. [3] basedon the isostrain and dimensionalone.Thecylindricalcoordinatesystem is
isosuessconcepts in mating the couplingbetween the chosen such that the z-axis is along the poling direction of
constituent phases provided a qualitative prediction on the the
piezoceramic rod, the r-axis is along
the
radial
effective parameters of 1-3 composites. Auld et al. pointed
direction and the 9-axis is perpendicular to the r-z plane,
out the existence of the stop band edge resonance in both
2-2 and 1-3 composites due to the periodic arrangement of respectively. Because of the axial-symmetry. all
the
properties do not depend on the %coordinate and hence,
the ceramic elements in these composites 141. However, in
the governing equations for the dynamics of a 1-3 piezc-
order to quantitatively address many realistic issues of a
composite become
composite material such as the influence of the aspect ratio
ofaunitcellonthe performance of transducer, finite
element method ( E M ) is often used [51.
More recently, based on the guided wave approach. an
analyticalmodel was developed which iscapableof
treatingmanypractical issues related to theultrasonic ao, I
-+-D,+--0
ao, -
performance of a 2-2 composite. By combining this with a, r a,-
theeigenmodeexpansion, the ultrasonic properties of a The symbolsadopted in this paper aresummarized as
finite
thickness 2-2 compositecan be analyzed follows: Ty and S, are the SW and strain tensor
quantitatively and many new features were predicted and componenu, U, is the elastic displacement vector, p is the
confimed experimentally [6].It is the objective of this density, D, is the electric displacement vector and Ei the
work to extend themodel to 1-3 piezocomposites. electric field. The relevant material coefficients are: e1 is
To simplify the mathematics ofthe problem, we will the piezoelectric coefficient, cy is the elastic stiffness, and

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q the dielecuic permittivity. Equation (1) holds for both From (5). the relationship between W and p. the dispmion
polymer and piezoceramicphascs. relations, canbe determined.
The constitutive quations for the piezweramic in the
cylindrical coordinate systemare m.&F€CnV€ PROPERTIESOF A 1-3 PmOCOMPOSm

The longitudinal wave velocityof a 1-3 composite is

For the polymer phase, e, in (2) is zero.The supmcripts E
and S indicate that the coefficients are under the constant E
field and constant strain conditions,respectively. Under the
quasi-electrostaticapproximation, the electricfield E is
related to the electrical potential0
E = -V@. (3)
Combining (l), (2). and (3) yields threedifferential
equations governing the elastic displacement U,, U,. and the
elecmcalpotential in the piezweramic rod and in the
polymer,respectively [6]. The generalsolutions for the
piezo-active modes in the ceramic rod have the form:
U: = z ~ ~ . ' J , , ( h : r ) s i n ( P z )
U: =~ ~ g : J l ( h : r ) c o s ( ~ j (4)
determined from the dispersion curves using V,=@ [6].
Presented in Fig. Z(a) arc the comparison of the theoretical
and experimental results of the longitudinal wave velocity
VD vs. d/t (t isthe thickness) for a 1-3 composite with
40.5% ccramic volume fraction. The experimental results
arc obtained by the resonance method for the 1-3
composite plate at different thickness t and v"=Zf,t (5 is
the parallel resonance frequency). ?be agreement is very
good when d/t is less than 0.65. At dlt higher than 0.65, the
experimental valucs deviate from that of the theoretical
one. This is due to the lower latcral mode frequency from
the experimental samples.
Shown in Fig. 2@) the is dependence of the
longitudinal wave velocity on ccramic volume fraction for
a 1-3 composite with different Br, a parameter inversely
proportionalto the aspect ratio of theunitcell. The
loweringof VD for Br,=l.O which is shown at thelow
ceramic volume content region in the figure is due to the
coupling of the thickness mode with the lateral mode. For
compositewith higher ccramicvolumefraction. this
coupling will occur at higher br, Hence. away from the
couplingregion,exhibits very little dispersion.Forthe
comparison. VDfrom quasi-static model arc a~soshown in
Fig. 2(b).
6
'
4

= zR,!f:Jo(h:r)sin(pz)
where i runs from 1 to 3 and the superscript c denotes the
ceramic. J. and J, are the zerothand fint order Bessel
functions. For each P.
there are three h. h ; , h; and h;,
corresponding to quasi-electromagnetic,
the quasi-
'
00 t 0.2 0.4
dn
0.6 0.8 d 1

longitudinal.andquasi-shear waves in the piezoceramic

rod,respectively. c,
g,' and l: are the ratios of the
eigen vectors [6].
Similarly, the solutions for the polymer phase can be
obtained [6].
The
boundary conditions at the ceramic polyma
interface (mt) arc
U: = U:.
U: = U ' , T; = TL, T i = T,' (5a)
a' = a pD,: =D,' (5b)
and the symmetry conditionsat R,require
T,'=O, u,'=o. q = o (5c)

558 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

 The
thickness mode electromechanicalcoupling deviation of thetheoretical value from the expcrimental
coefficient of a 1-3 piezocomposite is derived in the model one is due to thelower lateral modeFrequency ofthe
from experimental samples as has been pointed out earlier.

k: =I-(+) v E l (6) I V . LOSSES M 1-3 ~ O C O M p o S ~

VI

where v: and v: are the longitudinal wave velocit): under In the previous sections, the losses in the materials have
constant E and constant D conditions,respectively. not been included. However, as has been demonstrated in
Presented in Fig. 3(a) is the dependence of k, on ceramic many experiments. loss in a 1-3 piezocomposite is much
volumefraction for a1-3piezocompositewithdifferent higher than that in piezoceramic. and therefore. it is very
or,. Again, the reduction in 4 at the low ceramic volume important to include thelosses in the analysis.
fractionregionforthecurve with prz=1isdue to the In general.thereare three kinds of losses in a
coupling to the lateral mode. At &away from the coupling piezoelectric material, i.e. mechanical loss, dielectric loss
region, 4 exhibits very little dispersion. For the and piezoelectric loss. In the p o l y m e r phase, there are only
comparison, the results fmm the quasi-static model is also mechanical loss anddielectric loss. The losses inthe
presented in the figure. ceramic phase can be expressed by complex constants 171.
The thickness coupling factor for a 1-3 piezocomposite
with 40.5% ceramic volume content
wasevaluated
experimentally using therelation: and the losses in the polymerphase can be expressed as
cg =cv + jc, and E = E je - (9)
Fromthefactthatthe attenuation in piezoceramicis
where f, and f, are the series and parallelresonance proportionaltofrequency, the imaginary partofthe
frequencies of the 1-3 piezocomposite plate, respectively. parameters in the ceramic can be assumed constants [E].
Thedependence of the theoretical andexperimental While in the polymer phase. the main loss mechanism is
electromechanicalcoupling coefficient 4 on the aspect due to viscosity,therefore, c, = q 8where , qr is the
ratio t/d is shown in Fig. 3(b) for composites with 40.5% viscosity coefficientof the polymer.
ceramiccontent. Theagreement
betweenthe two is Thequalityfactor Q (or the mechanical Q) forthe
excellentfor d / t less han 0.65. At d/t above 0.65, the thickness mode of a 1-3 piezocomposite is evaluated fiom
the dispersion curves from the relation:
1.1
li Q=*
B

Where p, and p, are the real and imaginary part of the wave
vector p, respectively. Presented in Fig. 6 is the Q of a 1-3
piezocomposite as afunction of theceramic volume
fraction evaluated at Br,=O.l. The loss parameters used in
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 l the calculation are those of PZT-SH for the ceramic phase
Volume Fraction
and Spurr epoxy forthe polymer (listed in table D.
The results in Fig. 4 show that the quality factor of a 1-
3 piezocomposite is less than that of both the ceramic and
polymer for the composites evaluatedFor the comparison.
a-
thequalityfactorfor the thicloless mode of several 1-3
0.1 composites with different ceramic contentand single phase
W - 5 H ceramic plate was experimentally determined. l k
0.2
experiment data is alsopresented in the figure which is
consistent with the theoretical results. The lower value of
the experimental Q for single phase PZT-5H ceramic plate
compared with thatfrom the modelmay be themain
reasonforthelower Q ofthe experimentalsamples
compared withmodel results. The result here is quite
different from the real part of the elastic constant of a 1-3
compositewhichalwayslies in between the two end

1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 559

phases. This is also in contrary U, the common belief that
the low mechanical Q in a 1-3 composite is a result of the
lossinthepolymer phase. In fact, in thecomposite
evaluated, the mechanical Q of the polymer phase (Spurr
epoxy) is much higher than that of the piezoceramic. while
the Q ofthe 1-3 compositeis lower than that ,of the
pizeoceramic. The similar conclusion can also be obtained
from the quasi-sfatic model, which is presented in Fig. 5,
where the
quality
factor is
equal
to Illan6
of
(the
effective elastic constant of the composite at the constant
electric displacement D).
Clearly, the coupling between the ceramic and polymer
in a composite changes the phase relationship between the
stress and strain in both phases. Shownin Fig. 5 isthe
phase angle 6 between the stress (TJ and strain (SJ along
the z-direction at the polymer center (+I and ceramic rod
center (d) as afunction of ceramic volumefraction.
Apparently, for the polymer phase. the 6 is reduced when
the polymer is in the composite. and for the ceramic, it is
increased in the composite. Hence, the large increase of the
6 in the ceramic phase of the composite is the main reason
for the drop in the quality factor of composites since the
high elastic constants in the ceramic phase implies that the
loss intheceramicregion plays adominant role in
controlling the mechanical Q of the thickness mode of a
composite.

v. S r n M A R Y
A dynamic model is derived basedon guidedwave
propagationmethod.
From this model, the effective
electromechanicalproperties of the 1-3piezocomposites
hasbeen analyzed and showexcellentagreementwith
experiment. It is also found the mechanical quality factor
of a 1-3 composite is less than that ofboth ceramic and
polymer phases while the mechanical quality factor of the
polymer phase is larger than thatof the ceramic phase. The
interactionbetweenceramic and polymer phasechanges
2 M -1. ' , '

a
0 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.8 1
V d u n Fncda

560 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM