Degradation in lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics by high power resonant driving

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric ceramics were driven in a resonant mode at various power levels. The stability of the PZT piezoelectric ceramics is found to depend greatly on the driving power level. At low driving power, the ceramics are very stable and the properties remain unchanged after continuous vibration for long periods of time. When the driving power is relatively high, however, an obvious temperature rise is observed in the ceramics during vibration and serious degradation occurs to the properties of the ceramics after some periods of continuous vibration. As the properties of the degraded ceramics are restored after an ageing process, it is proposed that high power resonant driving causes a de-ageing effect on PZT piezoelectric ceramics, which leads to degradation. The heat generated in PZT ceramics by driving with relatively high power is proved to play a vital role in the de-ageing effect. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.