Abstract
This work presents an investigation on the numerical simulation of a
layered piezoelectric system using the complex finite element method
(ZFEM). This approach allows the standard FEM solution to provide
information about the design sensitivity of the mechanical displacement
and voltage potential fields with respect to small variations in the
material properties of the system. The layered body is formed by PZT-4
and PZT-5 stacked together. Results show that the design sensitivities
of the soft grounded piezoelectric are larger compared to those of PZT-4
for the specific configuration analyzed. For solution verification
purposes. The standard steady state solution was compared against a
commercial FEM package and the error obtained was less than 4%.