Study about possibilities for direct integration of piezo-fibers in sheet metal

This paper reports a study about the possibilities for direct integration of piezo-fibers in sheet metal. In the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 39 PT-PIESA "Production Technologies for light metal and fiber reinforced composite based components with integrated PIEzoceramic Sensors and Actuators", set up with the promotion of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), effective technologies for the production of adaptronic components are investigated. One idea is the direct integration of piezo-fibers in sheet metal like for instance aluminum sheets. A detailed finite-element-model was developed to design a functional part in the sheet metal by means of directly integrated fibers or micro-structured composite elements. Several versions of design were investigated. So the geometry of the microstructure, the material parameter and the geometry of the isolation layer, the piezo-elements and the piezo-mode (d31- or d33-effect) and also the field direction was varied. Two different designs are promising. The first design is characterized by the usage of the d33-effect across the fiber. The second promising design is characterized by the use of slotted piezo-fiber-composites.