In this work, behavior of a unimorph piezoceramic actuator, LIPCA (Lightweight Piezo-
Composite Actuator) has been numerically and experimentally investigated. By measuring the
lateral displacement created by the compressive load, the buckling load of the LIPCA was
determined. Under simply supported configuration, the measured buckling load agreed well with
the geometrically nonlinear buckling load from the finite element analysis. The measured data
shows that the lateral displacement of the LIPCA is significantly increased when the electric field is
prescribed to the LIPCA in addition to the compressive load. The measured data was compared
with the computed results from the geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis. The numerical
simulation agreed well with the measurement for low compressive load and low electric field.