Inverse procedure for measuring piezoelectric material parameters using a single multi-electrode sample

An inverse measurement procedure for the determination of a full set of piezoelectric material parameters using a single sample is presented. The basis for the measurement procedure is a measurement of the frequency-dependent impedance of the sample. To yield sufficient sensitivity of this measurement with respect to all material parameters (mechanical, electrical, and coupling parameters), an optimal electrode configuration for the sample is determined before the inverse measurement procedure is realised using a novel topology optimisation approach. After initial estimates for the material parameters are provided by analytical expressions, a sensitivity-based, staged, local optimisation procedure yields material parameters for the sample by fitting the impedance of a finite element simulation model to the measured electrical impedance. Results for different absorption models as well as for different piezoelectric materials (hard, soft, and lead-free piezoceramics) are included.</p

Increasing the sensitivity of electrical impedance to piezoelectric material parameters with non-uniform electrical excitation

To increase the robustness and functionality of piezoceramic ultrasonic sensors, e.g. for flow, material concentration or non-destructive testing, their development is often supported by computer simulations. The results of such finite-element-based simulations are dependent on correct simulation parameters, especially the material data set of the modelled piezoceramic. In recent years several well-known methods for estimation of such parameters have been developed that require knowledge of the sensitivity of a measured behaviour of the material with respect to the parameter set. One such measurable quantity is the electrical impedance of the ceramic. Previous studies for radially symmetric sensors with holohedral electrode setups have shown that the impedance shows little or no sensitivity to certain parameters and simulations reflect this behaviour making parameter estimation difficult. In this paper we have used simulations with special ring-shaped electrode geometry and non-uniform electrical excitation in order to find electrode geometries, with which the computed impedance displays a higher sensitivity to the changes in the parameter set. We find that many such electrode geometries exist in simulations and formulate an optimisation problem to find the local maxima of the sensitivities. Such configurations can be used to conduct experiments and solve the parameter estimation problem more efficiently