A direct curvature sensing measurement based on the flexoelectricity of Ba 0.64 Sr 0.36 TiO 3 (BST) material through electromechanical coupling is proposed and developed in this paper. The curvature sensing was demonstrated in four point bending tests of a beam with bonded BST curvature sensors under different applied loads with low time-harmonic frequencies from 0.5 to 3 Hz. A shear lag concept which describes the efficiency of the loading transfer from the epoxy bonding layer was taken into account in extracting the actual curvature from the sensor measurement. A finite element analysis has been performed to estimate the curvature transfer efficiency and the bonding layer thickness is found to be a critical parameter in determining the curvature transfer. Experimental results showed a good linearity of charge output dependence on curvature inputs in a limited frequency range and showed a curvature sensitivity of 30.78 pC m, in comparison with 32.48 pC m from theoretical predictions. Using the measured curvature, the bending stiffness of the beam was then obtained from the experimentally obtained moment-curvature curve. This work demonstrated that the flexoelectric BST sensor provides a direct curvature measurement instead of using a traditional strain gage sensor through interpolation, and thus offers an important avenue for on-line and in situ structural health monitoring.
Magnetodielectric response in 0.36BiScO3-0.64PbTiO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films and the corresponding model modifications J. Appl. Phys. 110, 046103 (2011); 10.1063/1.3610421 Microstructural and optical properties of Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Ti O 3 thin film deposited by pulsed laser deposition for low loss waveguide applications
The flexoelectric effect has been recently explored for its promise in electromechanical sensing. However, the relatively low flexoelectric coefficients of ferroelectrics inhibit the potential to develop flexoelectric sensing devices. In this paper, a multilayered structure using flexoelectric barium strontium titanate (Ba 0.65 Sr 0.35 TiO 3 or BST) ceramic was fabricated in an attempt to enhance the effective flexoelectric coefficients using its inherent scale effect, and hence to improve the flexoelectric sensitivity. The performances of piezoelectric and flexoelectric cantilevers with the same dimensions and under the same conditions were compared. Owing to the flexoelectric scaling effect, under the same force input, the BST flexoelectric structure generated a higher charge output than its piezoelectric P(VDF-TrFE) and PMN-30PT counterparts when its thickness was less than 73.1 µm and 1.43 µm, respectively. Also, amplification of the charge output using the multilayered structure was then experimentally verified. The prototyped structure consisted of three layers of 350 µm-thick BST plates with a parallel electric connection. The charge output was approximately 287% of that obtained using a single-layer structure with the same total thickness of the multilayered structure under the same end deflection input, which suggests high sensitivity sensing can be achieved using multilayer flexoelectric structures.
In this article a new acceleration sensor using flexoelectric barium strontium titanate cantilever was designed, fabricated, and tested for vibration monitoring. The flexoelectric sensors were configured as a trapezoidal unimorph with a barium strontium titanate layer bonded onto a steel substrate. Seismic mass was attached to the unimorph tip to amplify the transverse flexoelectric response of the barium strontium titanate layer. The theoretical model was developed and validated by vibration tests using the prototyped flexoelectric unimorph. The prototyped accelerometer with thickness of 0.1 mm and length and width in millimeters showed a stable sensitivity of 0.84 pC/g over the frequency range of 100 Hz–1.6 kHz. The aging property of the flexoelectric material was demonstrated to be much better than that of the reported piezoelectric materials right after poling. Scaling effect analysis was also performed for flexoelectric unimorphs. The test results and initial scaling effect analysis indicate that micro/nano flexoelectric sensing holds promise for a broad range of applications.
Flexoelectricity, the linear coupling between the strain gradient and the induced electric polarization, has been intensively studied as an alternative to piezoelectricity. Especially, it is of interest to develop flexoelectric devices on micro/nano scales due to the inherent scaling effect of flexoelectric effect. Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 thin film with a thickness of 130 nm was fabricated on a silicon wafer using a RF magnetron sputtering process. The flexoelectric coefficients of the prepared thin films were determined experimentally. It was revealed that the thin films possessed a transverse flexoelectric coefficient of 24.5 μC/m at Curie temperature (∼28 °C) and 17.44 μC/m at 41 °C. The measured flexoelectric coefficients are comparable to that of bulk BST ceramics, which are reported to be 10–100 μC/m. This result suggests that the flexoelectric thin film structures can be effectively used for micro/nano-sensing devices.
Converse flexoelectric coefficient f(1212) in bulk Ba0.67Sr0.33TiO3
In this paper new acceleration sensors using flexoelectric barium strontium titanate (BST) were designed, fabricated and tested for vibration monitoring. The flexoelectric sensors were configured as rectangular and trapezoidal cross-section micro-unimorphs with a BST layer bonded onto a Si substrate. Proof masses were attached to unimorph tips to amplify the transverse flexoelectric responses of the BST layers. The theoretical model was developed and validated by vibration tests using the prototyped flexoelectric micro-unimorphs. The prototyped accelerometer showed a stable sensitivity of 0.84 pC/g in the frequency range of 100 Hz ∼ 1.6 kHz, which agreed well with the analytical results. The aging property of the flexoelectric sensor was demonstrated to be much better than that of the reported piezoelectric materials right after poling. Scaling effect analysis was performed for flexoelectric unimorphs. The test results and initial scaling effect analysis indicate that micro/nano flexoelectric sensing hold promise for a broad range of applications.
In this study, a flexoelectric microphone was, for the first time, designed and fabricated in a bridge structure using barium strontium titanate (Ba 0.65 Sr 0.35 TiO 3 ) ceramic and tested afterwards. The prototyped flexoelectric microphone consists of a 1.5 mm × 768 µm × 50 µm BST bridge structure and a silicon substrate with a cavity. The sensitivity and resonance frequency were designed to be 0.92 pC/Pa and 98.67 kHz, respectively. The signal to noise ratio was measured to be 74 dB. The results demonstrate that the flexoelectric microphone possesses high sensitivity and a wide working frequency range simultaneously, suggesting that flexoelectricity could be an excellent alternative sensing mechanism for microphone applications.
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