Viscoelastic modeling and experimental characterization of thermo-electromechanical response of 1-3 piezocomposites

The viscoelastic behaviour of 1-3 piezocomposites with different volume fractions and bulk piezoceramics is studied under thermal environment subjected to electrical loading. Experiments are conducted to measure the temperature dependent effective properties based on IEEE standards and time dependent thermo-electromechanical response of 1-3 piezocomposites and piezoceramic subjected to high cyclic electrical loading under elevated thermal environment. The temperature dependent effective properties are predicted using the proposed numerical model based on unit cell approach and implemented into the viscoelastic model to predict the time dependent thermo-electro-elastic effective properties. The predicted effective properties are incorporated in a finite element based 3-D micromechanical model to predict the time dependent thermo-electro-mechanical performance behaviour of 1-3 piezocomposites. Comparison between the experiments and simulations shows that this model can reproduce the characteristics of time dependent non-linear electromechanical response under thermal environment. It is observed that the variation in fiber volume fraction and elevated operating temperature has a significant influence on the response of the 1-3 piezocomposites.