Electromechanical response of PZT 65/35 subjected to axial shock loading

This theoretical and experimental investigation deals with the electromechanical response of a shock−loaded ferroelectric ceramic material. Quartz gauge and voltage−mode techniques were used to characterize the mechanical and electrical responses, respectively, of PZT 65/35 to ≈80 kbar. Below ≈20 kbar the wave propagation was dispersive, whereas step shocks were steady between ≈20 kbar and the ≈36−kbar Hugoniot elastic limit. Above 36 kbar the final stress states were reached asymptotically and are believed to be steady. The electrical response was complicated by the ferroelectric−to−paraelectric phase transformation at 60±3 kbar and the kinetics of the change in polarization. To investigate this latter effect, a kinetic model is developed which gives good agreement with experimentally determined voltage responses.