Experimentally and Numerically Validated Analytical Solutions to Nonbuckling Piezoelectric Serpentine Ribbons
Abstract
Emerging stretchable piezoelectric devices have added exciting sensing and energy harvesting capabilities to wearable and implantable soft electronics. As conventional piezoelectric materials are intrinsically stiff and some are even brittle, out-of-plane wrinkled or buckled structures and in-plane serpentine ribbons have been introduced to enhance their compliance and stretchability. Among those stretchable structures, in-plane piezoelectric serpentine ribbons (PSRs) are preferred on account of their manufacturability and low profiles. To elucidate the trade-off between compliance and sensitivity of PSRs of various shapes, we herein report a theoretical framework by combining the piezoelectric plate theory with our previously developed elasticity solutions for passive serpentine ribbons without piezoelectric property. The electric displacement field and the output voltage of a freestanding but nonbuckling PSR under uniaxial stretch can be analytically solved under linear assumptions. Our analytical solutions were validated by finite element modeling (FEM) and experiments using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based PSR. In addition to freestanding PSRs, PSRs sandwiched by polymer layers were also investigated by FEM and experiments. We found that thicker and stiffer polymers reduce the stretchability but enhance the voltage output of PSRs. When the matrix is much softer than the piezoelectric material, our analytical solutions to a freestanding PSR are also applicable to the sandwiched ones.
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- Authors
- Liu, S., Ha, T., & Lu, N.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Texas Materials Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lu, Nanshu
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Mechanics
- Publisher
- ASME International
- Published
- 2019-03-16
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 5
- ISSN
- 0021-8936 (ISSN-L)
- 1528-9036
- OpenAlex
- W2911980606
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 1.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Mechanics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-15-1-0112)
- Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (1351875)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Dielectric materials and actuators
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Advanced Materials and Mechanics
- Keywords
- analytical solution, polyvinylidene fluoride, uniaxial stretching, electric displacement, output voltage, energy harvesting
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