Materials whose properties can be tuned by external parameters find extensive applications as sensors and actuators. Piezoelectric materials are one of this kind with their capability of converting mechanical energy to electrical energy and vice versa. Consciously or not we come across piezoelectric effect in our day to day life. The piezo igniter for cooking, ultrasonic parking sensors, piezo buzzer in alarm clocks and mobile phones etc. are a few to mention. Piezoelectric materials are broadly classified into naturally occurring and synthetic. Modelling of any device enables to predict its behavior based on the fundamental theory that drives it. Finite Element method is often used for the modelling of ultrasonic devices and commercial packages are available for this. In this paper we make use of the tool ANSYS 15.0 to model piezoelectric phenomenon in materials. Piezoelectric effect arises from the coupling between structural strain and internal electric fields. The coupled field analysis of ANSYS enables evaluation of interaction between two or more fields. Static, modal, harmonic and transient analyses are possible with regard to piezoelectric analysis. We present modal analysis of piezoelectric structures which enables to determine the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the structure. The piezoelectric materials considered for analysis are PZT-4, a commonly used piezo- ceramic material, and BaTiO3, a lead- free piezoelectric ceramic material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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