Flexural traveling wave excitation based on shear-shear mode

This paper presents a new mechanism for circular flexure traveling wave excitation, which is based on a shear-shear mode in a single piezoelectric ceramic annular or disc. A piezoelectric disc with a center hole was poled along its radial direction. Its bottom electrode was divided into four parts, and the top electrode acted as common ground. By use of a pair of alternating current (AC) voltage signals (sine and cosine), at the disc's resonance frequency, a flexural traveling wave was generated circumferentially. Both finite element modeling (FEM) analysis of transducers by integration of Laplace equations (ATILA) analysis and experimental results demonstrate the concept. As an application example, a shear-shear mode prototype was constructed and characterized.