A STUDY ON PIEZOELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF PVDF AND ITS COPOLYMERS

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a type of electroactive polymer which shows significant shape change when exposed to electric field. PVDF is generally used as a film sensor in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of materials. In this study, however, its properties relevant to film actuator are considered. Since most of the electromechanical applications that use PVDF and its copolymers as actuators use their piezoelectric properties, only the piezoelectric properties of PVDF are discussed here. These properties depend mainly on the degree of crystallinity of PVDF. Available data from recent research publications are used to simulate the response of a PVDF bimorph beam on the application of electric field, by a commercial finite element analysis package ANSYS. Finally, the factors that affect mechanical behavior of PVDF bimorph beam are discussed.