Abstract
This thesis investigates the effectiveness of using a hydraulic press to apply a controlled uniaxial stress to enhance polarization in piezoelectric ceramics. Recent previous work used a hydrostatic pressure chamber that through clever design applied a uniaxial stress to the piezoceramics. Piezoelectric cylinders were tested and compared to results obtained by previous methods of Aronov, Aikins, et.al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 147(6), 4145-4152, 2020]. Measurements of the resonance frequency, anti-resonance frequency, effective piezoelectric coupling coefficient, low frequency capacitance and conductance were obtained using a HP 4194a impedance analyzer. From these measurements, sample geometry and derived formulas for the equivalent electromechanical parameters, the piezoelectric modulus (d-constant), mechanical compliance, effective coupling coefficient, and electrical loss tangent are determined. Results showed that there was a comparable (20%) increase in the effective piezoelectric coupling coefficient of soft cylindrical piezoelectric ceramics (PZT-5) after using a hydraulic press to apply uniaxial stress.