Piezoelectric and mechanical properties of a high performance thermoplastic composite

Abstract

To protect aircraft and satellite structures from mechanical solicitations such as vibrations, a piezoelectric-based passive damping concept is studied. Most of the time, the piezoelectric elements are surface bonded or embedded in the host structure that needs to be damped. There are integrated with an external shunted circuit. When the piezoelectric material is de-formed, it generates an electrical potential that is dissipated by Joule effect in a resistive ele-ment. More precisely, the purpose of this work is to integrate this passive macroscopic damping con-cept to the composite scale. For this, a hybrid piezoelectric composite based on high perfor-mance thermoplastic polymer as structural matrix is developed. This structural matrix belongs to the PAEK (Poly Aryl Ether Ketone) family. The high glass transition temperature of these thermostable polymers is a critical parameter in the choice of the piezoelectric ceramic. Its Cu-rie temperature has to be higher than the Tg of the composite. In addition, one of the main challenges is to ensure homogeneous particle dispersion with a sufficiently low content to maintain the matrix ductility. We propose to present the piezoelectric and mechanical proper-ties of a thermoplastic polymer / micronic piezoelectric particle composites as a function of their chemical composition.