Enhanced performance active fiber composites

Active fiber composites (AFCs) find applications in a variety of industrial, commercial, and aerospace markets as both actuators and sensors. Among the key attributes of AFCs relative to conventional monolithic piezoceramic actuators are high strain energy density, unidirectional response, conformability, and robustness. Recently, performance enhancements in AFCs have been demonstrated through the use of a modified injection molding process to produce piezoceramic modules with multiple identical fibers of a uniform rectangular cross section. AFC actuators made from Type II PZT fiber modules exhibit free micro-strains of 1830 +/- 30 ppm at a peak-peak E-field drive of 26.1 W/cm, and show exceptional part-to-part uniformity. In addition, AFCs made from injection molded PMN-PT fiber modules show a low-field d(33) of 650 pC/N. The successful incorporation of PMN-PT materials into AFCs also demonstrates the viability of using highly textured ceramic PMN-PT piezofibers, for which even larger increases in strain response are expected.