Piezoelectric modelling using a time domain finite element program

The disconformities in piezoelectric resonators between the electrical and mechanical experimental measurements in frequency resonance and transient modes and the prediction of the one-dimensional models that supports the characterization of them, are well known. The same can be applied to the piezoelectric transducers based on piezoelectric resonators. A finite element analysis of both the resonator and the piezoelectric transducers can help the understanding of the reason of these disconformities. te element modelling program, PZFlex (Weidlinger Associates Inc., Los Altos, CA, USA), has been used to analyse the piezoelectric transducer devices, i.e. isotropic plates, piezoceramic disks, etc. This program uses a mixed explicit–implicit time integration algorithm, which is used to obtain the mechanical, acoustic and electrostatic field solution of the piezoceramic device. Working on the time domain gives advantages on the speed and model size against frequency domain models, thus allowing more accurate models. ork shows the mechanical and electrical behaviour in transient mode of piezoelectric resonators with standard sizes for metrological purposes and the piezoelectric transducers made with them.