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In this paper, a phenomenon of polarization introduced by shock waves is experimentally studied. Although this phenomenon has been reported previously in the community of physics, this is the first time to link it to flexoelectricity, the coupling between electric polarization and strain gradients in dielectrics. As the shock waves propagate in a dielectric material, electric polarization is thought to be induced by the strain gradient at the shock front. First, we control the first-order hydrogen gas gun to impact and generate shock waves in unpolarized bulk barium titanate (BT) samples. Then, a high-precision oscilloscope is used to measure the voltage generated by the flexoelectric effect. Based on experimental results, strain elastic wave theory, and flexoelectric theory, a longitudinal flexoelectric coefficient of the bulk BT sample is calculated to be μ 11 = 17.33 × 10 − 6 C/m, which is in accord with the published transverse flexoelectric coefficient. This method effectively suppresses the majority...

We experimentally studied the built-in polarization induced effective piezoelectric constant and direct flexoelectric coefficient in α-phase bulk polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). This phenomenon was detected and discussed based on the compression of a truncated cone. An improved mechanical formulation of flexoelectricity was presented and discussed in this study, and the experiment was carried out based on the charge measurement. From the experiment study, a flexoelectric coupling coefficient 202.3 V was calculated from the flexoelectric coefficient μ11=1.6×10−8C/m for bulk polyvinylidene fluoride. We measured the flexoelectric response of bulk PVDF with consideration of the residual piezoelectric contributions and geometry-dependent calibration, which affect the flexoelectric measurement.

Defined as a strain gradient-induced electric polarization, flexoelectricity exists in all dielectric materials. The coefficient that exists between the strain gradient and the electric polarization defines the flexoelectric coefficient tensor. The tensor components along the longitudinal and transverse directions have been studied widely. However, little progress has been reported on flexoelectric properties in the shear direction to date. In this work, a novel method for measurement of the shear flexoelectric coefficient μ1211 of polyvinylidene fluoride is presented. An experiment is conducted on a tubular unpolarized specimen, where shear strain gradient is generated along the radial direction by applying torque to the ends of the tube-shaped specimen. Dynamic torque is exerted on specimens with a static bias value and at different frequencies. The generated shear strain gradient is calculated via finite element analysis and the corresponding induced electrical polarization is measured using a charge a...