Cochlear hair cells convert sound vibration into electrical potential, and loss of these cells diminishes auditory function. In response to mechanical stimuli, piezoelectric materials generate electricity, suggesting that they could be used in place of hair cells to create an artificial cochlear epithelium. Here, we report that a piezoelectric membrane generated electrical potentials in respons...

The present paper gives an overview on actual developments of the application of piezoelectric components in transportation industry. During the last decades, piezoelectric materials made huge progress in entering commercial mass markets throughout all branches, where piezoelectrics are used as the basis materials for actuators as well as sensors. Especially in transportation industry, they fou...

Title of Document: ORIENTATION DEPENDENCE OF THE PIEZOELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF EPITAXIAL FERROELECTRIC THIN FILMS Jun Ouyang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Directed By: Professor Alexander. L. Roytburd Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering There are both intrinsic piezoelectric response and extrinsic piezoelectric response in ferroelectric materials. The intrinsic piezoelectric response is due ...

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Sensors and actuators based on piezoelectric ceramics are finding an increasingly large variety of applications under a very wide range of environmental conditions and applied signals. Some actuator applications require the piezoelectric materials to support large mechanical loads and produce high strain output. In order to accomplish this requirement of higher strains, large electric fields mu...

Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and non-piezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. These composites have several advantages compared to conventional piezoelectric ceramics and polymers, including improved electromechanical properties, mechanical flexibility and the abi...

We aim to present mathematical models of smart materials and smart structures. Smart materials are materials which present significant multiphysical couplings. They are integrated in smart structures which take technological advantages of some multiphysical effects. We establish a classification of piezoelectric crystalline materials and propose simplified but accurate models of thin plates or ...

Flexoelectricity and the concomitant emergence of electromechanical size-effects at the nanoscale have been recently exploited to propose tantalizing concepts such as the creation of “apparently piezoelectric” materials without piezoelectric materials, e.g. graphene, emergence of “giant” piezoelectricity at the nanoscale, enhanced energy harvesting, among others. The aforementioned developments...

Piezoelectric loudspeaker is characterized by its very simple constructions, but their radiation performance at low frequency region is poor because their conventional diaphragm is too stiff for large amplitude vibration. This paper proposes three innovative methods for improvement of low frequency radiation performance of piezoelectric direct-radiator loudspeakers by new constructions and mate...

This work demonstrates the potential of porous BaTiO3 for piezoelectric sensor and energy-harvesting applications by manufacture of materials, detailed characterisation and application of new models. Ferroelectric macro-porous BaTiO3 ceramics for piezoelectric applications are manufactured for a range of relative densities, α = 0.30-0.95, using the burned out polymer spheres method. The piezoel...