Design and study on a 1–3 anisotropy piezocomposite sensor

A design method is presented for 1–3 anisotropy piezocomposite so as to differentiate each strain component when it is used as the sensor in smart materials and structures. The 1–3 piezocomposite has been tailored to anisotropy by matching the scales of the piezoelectric phase and the non-piezoelectric phase. The composite samples have been fabricated by an aligning–casting–slicing process and the piezoelectric properties of the composites in the x and y directions have been measured and analyzed physically. It is shown that the difference of the piezoelectric properties of the composite between the x and y directions is up to approximately 40%.