Effective Piezoelectric Coefficient Calculation of Cymbal Piezocomposite

The "cymbal" metal-ceramic flextensional transducer has been developed for many actuator and sensor applications. In this device the ceramic driving element is sandwiched between two metallic endcaps with shallow cavities. The effective piezoelectric coefficient, d 33 eff , consists of the d 33 of the PZT disc and the contribution of the d 31 which is redirected by the cymbal endcaps. In this work the effective coefficient has been calculated by using a mechanical approach. The calculated values were compared with the experimental ones.