Inverse Design and Additive Manufacturing of High-performance Piezoelectric Transducer for Maritime Applications
Abstract
The ability to tune and maximize piezoelectric coefficients and mechanical properties of piezoelectric materials is limited by their intrinsic crystal structures. With the advent of additive manufacturing and mesoscale control of piezoelectric micro-structures, it is possible to go beyond this limitation by creating materials with piezoelectric coefficient that transcend that of the natural crystals. The overarching goal of the proposed project is to achieve deterministic 3D mesoscale morphological and orientation controlof piezoelectric materials through additive manufacturing to achieve properties approaching, and beyond that of single crystalline materials. The PI#s team has recently demonstrated the ability to synthesize, and 3D print high-performance piezoelectric ceramics with inversely designed piezoelectric coefficient that breaks the symmetry limitations in crystals (Cui, et al., Science, 20221). We hereby hypothesize that through introducing designed multi-scale (grain orientation and meta-structures) of piezo-active micro-structures, a full inverse design of piezoelectric properties (including direct and inverse properties, directivity, strain generation and coupling coefficients), not displayed in natural crystals could be realized.Figure 2: Overall scope of the proposed project. We will develop a method to 3D align BTO seeds to generate 3D textured ceramics, after which we will be able to generate a variety of piezoelectric composites which will notably be used to fabricate ultra-sensitive hydrophones with tunable beam pattern.We will introduce 3D crystallographic textures within the colloidal feedstock (powder, binder, seed templates, sintering agents) with piezoelectric materials (including PVDF, PZT, PMN-PT). We will investigate how controlled mesoscale template additions can drive the emergence of ultra-high performance through microstructural control in any anisotropic material systems. Microstructural control includes the control of grain orientation and size in crystalline solids by (i) addition of seed templates with dimensions on the order of ~1 # 15µm, varying the size and width of domain patterns in active materials using AC electric fields, and (ii) control of crystallinity and orientation in polymer-binder-ceramic composites through the addition of oriented mesoscale ceramic phases. We will develop additivemanufacturing processes and field assisted printing approaches to realize the design of a new class of meta-crystal systems with single crystal properties and properties that are not exhibited in natural crystals.Approved for Public Release
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 11, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412294
Entities
People
- Xiaoyu (rayne) Zheng
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of California Regents