Radially Polarized

Piezoelectric Transducer
Introduction

 This tutorial provides a step-by-step instruction on how to create a piezoelectric

material that is radially polarized in a cylindrical coordinate system
 This model can be created using any of the Acoustics Module, MEMS Module or
Structural Mechanics Module
 The method of visualizing stress and strain in the cylindrical coordinate system is
shown
 The method of evaluating anisotropic material properties in both cylindrical and global
(rectangular) coordinate is shown
Physics, Geometry, and Mesh

Voltage across
V
piezo disc

Radial polarization of
piezo material

Roller condition on
the inside and
bottom of
the disc
Cylindrical Coordinate System

 By default, the local coordinate system

is oriented along the global rectangular Local axis Cylindrical
coordinate system coordinates
 In order to model radial polarization of x1 φ (Azimuthal)
the piezo disk, we need to define a x2 z (Axial)
cylindrical (local) coordinate system x3 r (Radial)
 The cylindrical coordinate directions
will correspond to the local coordinates
in the following manner
Some Technical Notes

 Why do we not use the predefined Cylindrical Coordinate System?

⎯ The more automatic option for creating a cylindrical coordinate system fixes the relation
between the local axes and the axes of the cylindrical coordinate system using the following
relation: x1 → r, x2 → φ, x3 → z which is not what we want
 Why do we use upper case X and Y instead of lower case x and y to define the base
vectors?
⎯ The coordinate system will be used to transform material properties. The material
properties are defined in the Material Coordinate System (X,Y,Z) and not the Spatial
Coordinate System (x,y,z). Hence the Base Vector Coordinate System needs to be defined in
terms of the material coordinates. This is important especially when the material is expected
to deform significantly and exhibit geometric nonlinearity.
How can we transform coordinates?

 In order to create a new local

coordinate system (cylindrical), we need
to define the unit vectors of the Relation between material
cylindrical coordinates in terms of the and cylindrical coordinates
material coordinates (X,Y,Z)
 𝑋 =𝑟 cos𝜙
 For that purpose we will use the
relation between the material and
𝑌  =𝑟 sin 𝜙
cylindrical coordinates (r,φ,z) Z  =𝑧
Unit Vectors in Cylindrical Coordinate System

 A unit vector can be expressed as:

eˆ  aXˆ  bYˆ  cZˆ wher a2  b2  c2  1

 e systems can be related using the following unit
The cylindrical and material coordinate
vectors

eˆ   sin Xˆ  cos Yˆ  0 Zˆ

eˆz  0 Xˆ  0Yˆ  1Zˆ
eˆr  cos Xˆ  sin Yˆ  0 Zˆ
 This is the information we typed in as base vectors
Change the Coordinate System
What Happens to the Material Properties?

d33 = 5.93e-10[C/N]
• d33 denotes the
polarization along the
local z-direction
• By default this would
correspond to the
material’s z-direction
• In the newly defined
cylindrical coordinate
system this would
correspond to the
radial direction
Displacement, Electric Fields, and Electric Potential

 The radial displacement produced by a  Voltage distribution in the

radial electric field (black cones) shows piezo disk
that the piezo disk is radially polarized
Cylindrical Coordinate System

 The blue arrows pointing radially within the disk indicates that the third axis (x3) of
the Base Vector System is aligned with the radial direction
Stresses and Strains

 Stresses and Strains are available in the Local Coordinate System for post processing
 Stresses in the local coordinate system are named:
⎯ Normal components: solid.sl11, solid.sl22, solid.sl33
⎯ Shear components: solid.sl12, solid.sl13, solid.sl23
 Strains in the local coordinate system are named:
⎯ Normal components: solid.el11, solid.el22, solid.el33
⎯ Shear components: solid.el12, solid.el13, solid.el23
 For our example this notation can interpreted as:
⎯ Index 1 → φ direction
⎯ Index 2 → z direction
⎯ Index 3 → r direction
Strains in Local Coordinate System

Plot on a radial
section
Elasticity Matrix in Global and Local Coordinates

 Use Results > Derived Values > Point Matrix Evaluation

Elasticity matrix in local

(cylindrical) coordinate system
(solid.D)
Note that this is exactly the same
material property listed under the
Materials node
Elasticity matrix in global
(rectangular) coordinate system
(solid.cEg)
This is obtained by transforming
the material property from
cylindrical to rectangular
coordinate system
Summary

 This tutorial showed how to setup a static analysis on a radially polarized piezoelectric
disk
 The radial polarization was modeled by creating a custom cylindrical coordinate
system
 The tutorial showed how to create plots to visualize the new coordinate system and
stresses and strains in this
coordinate system
 It also showed how anisotropic material properties can be evaluated in both user-
defined coordinate system as well as COMSOL’s global coordinate system