PZT ceramic particles/polyurethane composites formalism for mechanical energy harvesting

More recently, the ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been progressively replacing ferroelectric ceramics and polymers as they combine their interesting properties. Such as high compliance of polymers and high electromechanical coupling of ferroelectric ceramics those are required for piezoelectric transducer applications. At the same time, the ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composites formalism for predicting their energy-conversion capabilities is of both academic and industrial interest. The novelty of this paper is that the electrical power harvested by the PZT/PU polarized composite has been expressed in terms of the effective longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient (d 33 ) of the composite via a parameter p related to the poling ratio. Besides, the parameter p , that is characterizing the PZT/PU composites with different longitudinal piezoelectric coefficients (d 33 ), was evaluated. The other parameters of the electrical power expression were calculated using the Yamada model for the dielectric, piezoelectric and elastic constants. Finally, a good agreement was found between experience and model.