Auxetic behavior and acoustic properties of microstructured piezoelectric strain sensors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the mechanical, piezoelectric, and acoustic properties of auxetic microstructured lattice materials for strain sensors, using computational homogenization and dispersion analysis to identify band gaps and sensor designs.

Contribution

It introduces a first-order homogenization method for electro-mechanical coupling in auxetic piezoelectric lattices and explores their acoustic band gaps for sensor applications.

Findings

Identification of acoustic band gaps in auxetic piezoelectric structures

Design concepts for in-plane and out-of-plane strain sensors

Demonstration of auxetic topology's influence on acoustic and piezoelectric properties

Abstract

The use of multifunctional composite materials adopting piezo-electric periodic cellular lattice structures with auxetic elastic behavior is a recent and promising solution in the design of piezoelectric sensors. In the present work, periodic anti-tetrachiral auxetic lattice structures, characterized by different geometries, are taken into account and the mechanical and piezoelectrical response are investigated. The equivalent piezoelectric properties are obtained adopting a first order computational homogenization approach, generalized to the case of electro-mechanical coupling, and various polarization directions are adopted. Two examples of in-plane and out-of-plane strain sensors are proposed as design concepts. Moreover, a piezo-elasto-dynamic dispersion analysis adopting the Floquet-Bloch decomposition is performed. The acoustic behavior of the periodic piezoelectric material with auxetic topology is studied and possible band gaps are detected.

Figures

Full text

See pages 1-28 of DeBellis_Bacigalupo_SMS_2017_n