An indirect implicit technique for modelling piezoelectric ceramics

The fatigue performance of piezoelectric ceramic components is governed by various factors such as the applied magnitude of electrical and mechanical loads and the number of loading cycles. This paper presents an indirect implicit modelling technique that improves the lifetime prediction for piezoelectric ceramics. The proposed technique has the ability to model hysteretic behaviour as well as complex cyclic degradation behaviour under a significant number of loading cycles. Experimental data of the piezoelectric ceramic, lead zirconate titanate (PZT), from different tests was used in the numerical example to justify the capability and applicability of the proposed technique in describing material cyclic behaviour as well as frequency dependent response without noticeable errors. Furthermore, since artificial neural networks are used as the implicit modelling technique, the proposed technique has the ability to predict multi-physical quantities, appearing in active piezoelectric ceramics, in a single model. Three numerical examples are presented and results show that the proposed technique provides good consistency when applied to different material behaviours.