Evaluation of shear piezoelectric coefficient d15 of piezoelectric ceramics by using piezoelectric cantilever beam in dynamic resonance

A novel method for characterization on the shear piezoelectric coefficient of piezoelectric ceramics was proposed. A shear-mode piezoelectric cantilever with coplanar electrode structure was fabricated via arranging two PZT-51 elements poled opposite in series connection, and a principle model based on Timoshenko beam theory was proposed to establish the relationship between peak-to-peak output voltage and frequency. The measured values are in good agreement with the results simulated by finite element method (FEM) with maximum relative error less than 4.5%. It is reliable and convenient for the proposed method to characterize the shear piezoelectric coefficient of piezoelectric ceramics.