Deformation in lead zirconate titanate ceramics under large signal electric field loading measured by digital image correlation

Digital image correlation, a noncontact and nondestructive method, was employed to monitor the deformation of lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics. This method is based on imaging a speckle pattern on the specimen surface during the test and subsequently correlating each image of the deformed pattern to that in the reference state. In our work, both longitudinal and transverse strains were calculated from imaging a bulk sample under a ±2 kV/mm electric field. Compared with linear variable displacement transducer data, the results from this correlation method were validated. At the same time, based on this optical technique, different strain-electric field butterfly loops can be drawn from correspondingly selected regions of interest. Combined with contour plots of strain on the surface of the sample, the deformation of bulk ceramic sample under uniaxial electric field loading without any mechanical constraints is proven to be highly homogenous under macro-observing scale.