Electroelastic guided wave dispersion in piezoelectric plates: spectral methods and laser-ultrasound experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces spectral methods for efficiently computing electroelastic guided wave dispersion in piezoelectric plates, validated by laser-ultrasound experiments, and provides accessible computational tools for researchers.

Contribution

It develops semi-analytical spectral approaches for dispersion calculation and assesses electrical boundary effects, making advanced techniques more accessible for practical applications.

Findings

Excellent agreement between experiments and computational predictions

Spectral methods effectively compute dispersion curves under various boundary conditions

Tools like 'GEW piezo plate' facilitate broader adoption of these techniques

Abstract

Electroelastic waves in piezoelectric media are widely used in sensing and filtering applications. Despite extensive research, computing the guided wave dispersion remains challenging. This paper presents semi-analytical approaches based on spectral methods to efficiently and reliably compute dispersion curves. We systematically assess the impact of electrical boundary conditions on a 128{\deg} Y-cut LiNbO3 wafer, examining open-open, open-shorted and shorted-shorted surfaces configurations. Multi-modal dispersion maps obtained from laser-ultrasonic experiments for each boundary condition exhibit excellent agreement with the computational predictions. A straightforward implementation of the spectral collocation method is made available as "GEW piezo plate" (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14205789), while the spectral element method will be integrated to "GEWtool" (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10114243). Therewith, we aim to make advanced semi-analytical techniques more accessible to physicists and engineers relying on dispersion analysis.