Electromechanical response of porous piezoelectric materials: Effects of porosity distribution

A finite element model is developed to systematically characterize the effects of porosity distribution on the complete electromechanical response of transversely porous (3-1) piezoelectric systems and to obtain a quantitative assessment of the relative effects of porosity geometry and porosity distribution in porous piezoelectric materials. Upon identifying 25 characteristic porosity configurations for three piezoelectric materials with widely different crystal symmetries and porosity ellitpticity, it is demonstrated that the fundamental elastic, dielectric, and piezoelectric properties of porous materials exhibit relatively greater sensitivity to the porosity geometry, while the corresponding figures of merit such as the acoustic impedance and the hydrostatic charge coefficient can be modulated by tailoring the porosity distribution.