A nonlinear electromechanical model for ferroelectric materials: application to soft-PZT thick films screen-printed on alumina substrate

Motivated by experimental observations made on soft-PZT/alumina cantilever bimorphs, a nonlinear electromechanical model is presented describing the characteristic phenomena of ferroelectricity: the dielectric hysteresis, the butterfly loop, and the ferroelastic hysteresis. This model uses a phenomenological formulation, written within the general framework of thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The one-dimensional formulation of the model is successfully validated using experimental data from the literature. The model is used to predict the electromechanical behavior of a PZT/alumina cantilever bimorph. The results of the simulations are very promising.