A new measurement method of piezoelectric properties of single ceramic fibres

For single piezoelectric ceramic fibres a method was developed to measure the piezoelectric strain loops. In this work we present a measurement method using a capacitive displacement sensor to characterize single fibres with diameters of 100–500 μ m. The electric field is applied in the length direction of the fibre and the strain parallel to the field is measured. Strain-electric-field loops of PZT fibres were measured at high electric field strength and frequencies up to 100 Hz. The sensitivity of the measurement method is high enough to determine the low-voltage piezoelectric coefficient d 33 . The results were compared with other results measured on single fibres. The advantages and drawbacks of the method are discussed.