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Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

IMME17

Finite element modeling of smart piezoelectric beam using

ANSYS®
K.Karthik Vinayaga, A.Vasanthanathan*, P.Nagaraj
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College,Sivakasi,Tamilnadu,India

Abstract

This paper emphasizes on a suitable way of power harvesting and also deals with the influence of composite materials for
generating micro power harvesting systems. Finite element simulation has been carried out by using ANSYS® by embedding the
smart piezoelectric material into the Glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP) cantilever beam structure which is subjected to
mechanical strain so as to obtain a maximum voltage generation. This paper also comprises the selection and comparison of
suitable piezoelectric materials viz. Lead or Piezo Zirconate Titanate (PZT) and Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) which are
embedded with the Glass fibre reinforced polymer cantilever beam under bending load.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering (IMME17).

Keywords: Smart material; micro power harvesting; GFRP; PVDF; finite element method; PZT; ANSYS®;

1. Introduction

Energy is the basic available sources which are extracted and converted from one form to another form by using
some external sources. Energy is divided into various forms such as mechanical energy, electrical energy, thermal
energy, solar energy and biomass energy.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9894781354;

E-mail address: [email protected]

2214-7853 © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
(IMME17).
 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085 7079

Nomenclature

[d] Dielectric matrix {e} Piezoelectric matrix

{T} Stress vector {E} Electric field vector
{D} Electric field density vector {S} Strain vector

Among these, electrical energy plays a major role in our technological environment. Electrical energy conversion
can be achieved by using photocells, thermocouples, magneto-electric and piezoelectric source.
The present study emphasizes on the development of finite element simulation model of extraction of electrical
energy using the piezoelectric material. The Piezoelectric material converts the mechanical vibrations into the
electrical energy source. Generally, piezoelectric effect consists of two categories viz. direct piezoelectric effect and
inverse piezoelectric effect. Direct piezoelectric effect implies the capability of the smart materials to produce an
electrical charge when it is exposed to an external force.That has been widely used in transducers applications viz.
accelerometers, force and pressure transducers. According to the converse piezoelectric effect, an electric field
develops when the piezoelectric material is under a mechanical deformation. The converse piezoelectric effect has
been applied in actuators design. The implementation of piezoelectric energy harvesting is preferable for smaller
aircraft like unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The wing of the aircraft structure comprises of various composite
structures like glass and carbon fibre reinforced polymers which are subjected to several bending and twisting
moments while flying at the high altitude. Piezoelectric materials are embedded along with the composite part of the
wing which leads to the generation of micro energy harvesting system.
PVDF is a stretchy polymer material in contrast to PZT which is a ceramic material. Being a polymer material
PVDF is having minimum piezoelectric coefficient when compared to PZT. The accumulation of electric charges is
induced in the piezoelectric materials when it is subjected to mechanical deformation. These accumulations are
caused due to the change in direction of the electric dipoles on the surface electrodes. Literatures [1,2] shows that
both PZT and PVDF enables piezoelectric energy harvesting when embedded with GFRP beam structure for voltage
generation and the literature [3] shows the finite element technique of PZT5 merged with the graphite along with
epoxy beam structure. These literature shows the influence of composite materials in the field energy harvesting.
The principal objective of the present paper is to model and simulate a GFRP cantilever beam structure embedded
with piezoelectric materials viz. PZT, PVDF using finite element method.

2. Smart cantilever beam

2.1. Theory of piezoelectric energy harvesting

Piezoelectric materials are those materials which are capable of extracting electrical energy when the material is
subjected to either tension or compression. Piezoelectric materials act as both sensors and actuators. Depends on the
strain developed among the piezoelectric material, there are two kinds of coupling modes exists viz. 33 mode
(compressive mode) and 31 mode (transverse mode). It is shown that 31 mode of cantilever configuration delivers
more efficient than the 33 mode of cantilever configuration for considering low ambiance vibration [4].
Piezoelectric materials are classified into two categories viz. Piezo ceramics like Lead Zirconate Titanate and
Polyvinylidene Fluoride. PZT is brittle in nature whereas PVDF structure contains uniaxial piezoelectric fibres
which are incorporated in the polymer matrix between the two interdigitated electrodes. The electric charges are
initiated by these interdigitated electrodes under the mechanical deformation. When the piezoelectric materials are
coupled between the materials it shows the nature of electrical behaviors which have the high electromechanical
coupling effectiveness.

2.2. Piezoelectric constitutive relation

Piezoelectricity involves the static linear relationship between the electrical and mechanical interaction of the
materials. The formulation of mathematical modeling of piezoelectric constitutive [5,6] relation is shown in Eqn (1),
7080 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085

{T} = [C]{S} - [e]{E}

(1)
{D} = [e] T {S} + [d] {E}

3. Finite element formulation for coupled field analysis

Any complex structure like smart structures embedded with smart materials with complex loading environments
with complex boundary conditions could be easily analyzed with finite element capabilities. The entire finite
element computations have been carried out in the present study using ANSYS®15.0.

3.1. Feasibility study using FEA

A feasibility study using Finite element model validation has been done using benchmark problem [7] as shown
in Table 1. Based on the literature, a finite element modeling of warping of the non-circular shaft has been modeled
in which aluminum is considered as the host structure having the dimensions of (0.03x0.03x0.2) m and PZT is
considered as a sensor having the dimensions of (0.03x0.005x0.2) m is subjected to a twisting moment of 100 kN.

Table 1. Validation of finite element results

Parameter FEA Vasanthanathan et al [7]

Voltage developed (µV) 2.23e-3 2.61e-3

Fig.1 illustrates the smart cantilever beam configuration and finite element model of smart cantilever beam while
Fig.2 indicates the finite element simulation of the voltage generated under the applied mechanical load.

Fig. 1. (a) Modeling of smart cantilever beam: (b) Finite element modeling of smart cantilever beam

Fig. 2. Deformed configuration – Smart cantilever beam

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3.2. Finite Element Analysis assumptions

Based upon the feasibility study carried out using FEM, a smart cantilever beam configuration with GFRP beam
as host structure and embedded with a layer of PZT or PVDF at the bottom of the beam as a sensor is analyzed.
Analysis option chosen in the present study for piezo embedded cantilever is coupled field analysis which consists
of structural and electrical coupling in ANSYS® Multiphysics or ANSYS® Mechanical products. The Element
chosen for GFRP cantilever beam is SOLID 185 (layered solid) for volume mesh and SHELL 281 for the area
oriented mesh. The elements in ANSYS® library which support the piezoelectric analysis is SOLID 5, setting
KEYOPT (1) = 3 which activates the piezoelectric having the DOF/node of UX, UY, UZ, V. Both PZT and PVDF
materials are modeled as isotropic. There are other element choices for piezoelectric analysis viz. SOLID 98,
SOLID 226, SOLID 227 for 3D volume mesh and PLANE 13, PLANE 223 for the area based mesh. In the finite
element simulation, the reinforcement is considered as glass fibre and matrix medium is treated as Epoxy. The left
end of the beam is constrained viz. all the dofs are arrested while the bending load is applied at the free end.

3.3. Finite element modeling and simulation of GFRP- Smart beam

The finite element simulation of GFRP beam is made with the number of plies, (n=10) and ply orientation of
[0º/90º/0º/90º]s merged with the sensor layer. A comparative study is also performed for both PZT and PVDF
materials for the maximum voltage generation. The analysis type chosen is static analysis by providing structural
capabilities with electrical coupling. Using the merge node option the proper transformation of load distribution is
achieved between the host structure and the sensor. The structural geometry of the host structure and sensor is
(0.03x0.01x0.2) m and (0.03x0.001x0.2) m. The material properties [2,8,9] preferred for modeling the host structure
and sensor are as shown in Table 2 and Table 3. The selection of laminate orientation and the boundary condition of
GFRP cantilever beam along with finite element model is highlighted in Fig.3.

Table 2. Material Properties [8,9] of PZT and PVDF

Properties PZT PVDF
Elastic Modulus (E) 63GPa 2e9GPa
Poisson’s ratio (γ) 0.3 0.29
Piezoelectric strain coefficient (d31) 320e-12 m/V 22e-12 m/V
Piezoelectric stress constant (g31) 10e-3 Vm/N 216e-3 Vm/N
3
Density (ρ) 7.5e3 Kg/m 1.78e3 Kg/m3
Permittivity constant (ɛ) 7.124e-9 F/m 106e-12 F/m
Relative permittivity (ɛ/ɛo) 805 12

Table 3. Material Properties [2] of GFRP

Properties GFRP
Elastic Modulus in x-direction (Ex) 40.51 GPa
Elastic Modulus in y-direction (Ey) 13.96 GPa
Elastic Modulus in z-direction (Ez) 13.96 GPa
Modulus of Rigidity in x-y direction (Gxy) 3.1 GPa
Modulus of Rigidity in y-z direction (Gyz) 1.55 GPa
Modulus of Rigidity in z-x direction (Gzx) 3.1 GPa
Poisson’s ratio in x-y direction (γxy) 0.22
Poisson’s ratio in y-z direction (γyz) 0.11
Poisson’s ratio in z-x direction (γzx) 0.22
Density 1830 kg/m3
7082 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085

Fig. 3. (a) Symmetric laminates [0/90] s; (b) Finite element model – GFRP smart beam

4. Results and Discussions

The Fig. (4–7) shows the finite element result comparison of PZT and PVDF which is embedded in the Glass
fibre reinforced polymer cantilever beam structure subjected to the initial bending load of 100 kN. The load is
increased at the interval of 100 kN up to a maximum load of 1000 kN.

Fig. 4. (a) Voltage developed for PZT embedded smart beam; (b) Voltage developed for PVDF embedded smart beam.

Fig. 5. (a) X- Stress plot for PZT embedded GFRP; (b) X- Stress plot for PVDF embedded GFRP.
 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085 7083

Fig. 6. (a) Y-Stress plot for PZT embedded GFRP; (b) Y-Stress plot for PVDF embedded GFRP.

Fig. 7. (a) Displacement vector sum of PZT embedded with GFRP; (b) Displacement vector sum of PVDF embedded with GFRP

It is seen that as the load increases, the voltage produced by both PZT and PVDF increases as indicated in
Table 4. It is found that the voltage developed by PZT is in the range between 2.87 to 28.7 µV whereas the voltage
developed by PVDF ranges from 18.3 to 183 µV. The percentage difference in increases in voltage is found to be
around 80% for all types of loads. Therefore, it is numerically estimated that PVDF provides better voltage output
than PZT counterpart. Fig.7 infers that for 100 kN bending load, the PVDF deflect in the range of 0.14574m
whereas the PZT gives 0.07162m. The PVDF gives 50.8% larger deflection than PZT, hence the vibration in PVDF
is more than PZT. PZT gives better control over vibration, however, the voltage generated will be very lower. The
comparison of response of PZT and PVDF in terms of Load-Voltage plot is represented in Fig.8

X-axis 1 unit = 100kN

200
Volt (µV)

100
PVDF‐VOLT(µV)
0 PZT‐VOLT(µV)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Load (kN)

Fig. 8. Load-Voltage response comparison plot.

7084 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085

Table 4. Finite Element result comparison of PZT and PVDF

SL.NO Load Voltage Voltage
developed in developed in
(kN)
PZT (µV) PVDF (µV)

1. 100 2.87 18.3

2. 200 5.75 36.5

3. 300 8.62 54.0
4. 400 11.5 73.1
5. 500 14.4 91.3
6. 600 17.2 110
7. 700 20.1 128
8. 800 23.0 146
9. 900 25.9 164
10. 1000 28.7 183

With reference to the presented finite element analysis, it is found that the sensor could be placed entirely along the
length of the beam. But from the commercially available standpoint, a range of the PVDF patches having the
structural geometry of (0.014x0.025x0.00025) m has been modeled and merging along with the glass fibre
reinforced polymer having the dimension of (0.3x0.04x0.025) m. The Analysis option has been chosen is Modal
analysis in order to identify suitable voltage response based on the mode 1 (bending) natural frequency range. By
choosing 5 PVDF sensor combinations, a suitable way of positioning and arrangements of sensors has been studied.
These 5 sensor combinations are split up into four sequences arrangements with respect to the natural frequency of
0.021143 Hz by varying distance up to (0.01 to 0.04) m between the sensors. Among these, first sequence having
0.01m gap provides the maximum voltage in a range of 0.152µV for 0.021143 Hz frequency is shown in the Fig.9.a.
Second sequence consists of parallel-5 sensor combination having 0.02m gap provides the maximum voltage in a
range of 1.20µV for 0.021146 Hz frequency is shown in the Fig.9.b. Third sequence consists of the PVDF sensors
which are patched at the top and bottom layer of the beam having 0.02m gap provides maximum voltage in a range
of 1.42 µV for 0.021141 Hz frequency is shown in the Fig.10.a. In fourth sequence, the sensors are arranged
alternatively having 0.02m gap possess the maximum voltage range of 54.0 µV for 0.021141 Hz is shown in the
Fig.10.b

Fig. 9. (a) 5 sensors combination-First sequence; (b) 5 sensors combination-Second sequence.

 K.Karthik Vinayaga et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 7078–7085 7085

Fig. 10. (a) 5 sensors combination-Third sequence; (b) 5 sensors combination-Fourth sequence.

5. Conclusion

The following conclusions are drawn from the present finite element study:

(1) A smart cantilever beam structure has been modeled and simulated with finite element capabilities.
(2) It has been found that ANSYS® FEA capabilities are compatible for simulating smart piezoelectric structures
embedded with PZT and PVDF.
(3) A comparative study of the finite element models with PVDF and PZT smart materials has been carried out.
(4) Finite element computations have been done for the generation of voltage for different loads and the results
are interpreted for both the materials.
(5) The nodal solutions deliberately predict the voltage generation and it is numerically found that PVDF
embedded in GFRP delivers 84.1% better output when compared with PZT counterpart.
(6) For considering proper positioning and arrangements of PVDF sensor, it is numerically found that an array
of 5 sensor combinations provides maximum voltage response of 54.0 µV for 0.021141 Hz.
(7) The present finite element study gave an ample suggestion for carrying not experiments using the smart
piezoelectric material.

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