On the nature of the electric field and the resulting voltage in axially loaded ferroelectric ceramics

We investigate the electric field produced in a ferroelectric ceramic disk polarized in the axial direction when it is subjected to uniform transient loading over one of its planar surfaces. It is shown that the structure of the electric field depends on the instantaneous piezoelectric response, the degradation of the piezoelectric response due to the time dependent effects of depoling, and the structure of the mechanical disturbance. For the situation when electric field‐strain relaxation is much faster than stress‐strain relaxation, the voltage obtained by integrating the calculated electric field is in excellent qualitative agreement with the observed behavior of PZT 65/35.