Fine scale 1-3 composites fabricated by the soft mold process: Preparation and modeling

Abstract

The “soft mold” process offers the opportunity to fabricate fine scale 1-3 composites with free design of the piezoceramic rods. 1-3 composites with different volume fractions of arrayed PZT rods in a polymer matrix with diameters between 35 μm and 150 μm have been prepared successfully by this method. After poling the dielectric and electromechanical properties were determined. The experimental results were compared to calculated data from analytical approximations and modeling with the Finite Element Method (FEM).

Keywords:

• 1-3 composites
• fine scale
• soft mold process
• FEM