Modeling Surface Electrodes on a Piezoelectric Layer

This paper considers a piezoelectric ceramic layer with a surface electrode. It focuses on the effect of the layer thickness on the electrode tip fields. A closed-form solution for the electromechanical fields at the electrode tip is obtained and is expressed in terms of the applied electric field intensity factor, which can be obtained exactly for infinite layer thickness and numerically for finite layer thickness. The stress, electric displacement, and electric field are plotted to show the effect of layer thickness. It is found that the stresses and field intensities at the electrode tip can be reduced considerably by decreasing the thickness of the piezoelectric layer, confirming the previous finding. The paper also gives a solution for two identical and collinear surface electrodes. The relative distance between the electrodes is observed to have significant influence on the electromechanical field in the piezoelectric layer.

Analysis of a Thin Electrode Layer between Two Dissimilar Piezoelectric Solids

A thin electrode layer at the interface between two dissimilar linear piezoelectric materials under electromechanical loading is investigated. The complex function theory is employed to obtain the exact solution to a finite thin conductive layer. Special consideration is devoted to the structure of singular stress and electric fields near the tip of the thin electrode between two dissimilar piezoelectric materials. The stress and electric field are found to have an inverse square root singularity. The electric field intensity factor characterizes uniquely the singular fields close to the edge of the conductive line sheet.