Characterization and modeling time-dependent behavior in PZT fibers and active fiber composites

Active fiber composites (AFC) are comprised of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibers embedded in a polymer. This paper presents an experimental characterization of the PZT fibers and a constitutive model focused on their time-dependent, nonlinear response. The experiments herein focus on characterizing time dependence of various properties by conducting creep, relaxation, mechanical and electric field-cyclic loading at different frequencies. The constitutive model is a time-dependent polarization model that predicts nonlinear polarization and electro-mechanical strain responses of the fibers. The model of PZT fibers is used in the FEM simulation of AFCs and results of the model are compared to experiments for validation.