Modeling a piezoelectric cantilever beam with Simscape
Carter J. Childs, Stephen C. Thompson · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2019
Previous work developed a lumped parameter model in Simscape for the transverse vibration of a thin bar [C. J. Childs and S. C. Thompson, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 145, 1895 (2019)]. The current presentation expands that to include a layered bar, perhaps of different materials, and includes the electromechanical coupling for the case where the layers may be piezoelectric materials. This allows modeling such devices as the crystal or ceramic microphone that uses a piezoelectric bimorph element, and thin film piezoelectric cantilevers under consideration for vibration energy harvesting applications. While this paper uses Simscape for its examples, modeling these features in Modelica is equally possible.