Electrical modeling of Piezoelectric ceramics for analysis and evaluation of sensory systems

Piezoelectricity is an ability of some materials to generate an electric potential in response to applied mechanical stress. Piezoelectric ceramics are often used for sensory systems to monitor mechanical characteristics of structures through an electrical signal. Thus, to support system level analysis and evaluation of sensory systems, understanding and estimating the electrical behavior of piezoelectric ceramics with a minimum effort is valuable. This paper proposes an equivalent circuit model for piezoelectric ceramics, with a PZT patch as the specimen. The proposed model approximates the electrical behavior of piezoelectric ceramics with up to 100% accuracy for unloaded and 93% accuracy for loaded PZT, and provides a modeling procedure that can easily be automated.