Finite element analysis and experimental studies on the thickness resonance of piezocomposite transducers, Ultrason. Imaging 18

Finite element method (FEA) has been used to calculate the thickness resonance frequency and electromechanical coupling coefficient kt for 2-2 piezocomposite transducers. The results are compared with that of the effective medium theory and also verified by experiments. It is shown that the predicted resonance frequencies from the effective medium theory and the unit cell modeling using FEA deviate from the experimental observations for composite systems with a ceramic aspect ratio (width/length) more than 0.4. For such systems, full size FEA modeling is required which can provide accurate predictions of the resonance frequency and thickness coupling constant kt. KEY WORDS: Aspect ratio; composite transducers; effective medium theory; finite element analysis; piezocomposites. q 1996 Academic Press, Inc. 1