Optimal design of periodic piezocomposites (Q1817832)

This paper describes the optimization of performance characteristics of an orthotropic piezocomposite material under hydrostatic pressure for low-frequency hydrophone applications. The performance characteristics of the material, which depend on the topology of its unit cell, and the properties of its constituents are defined in terms of hydrostatic coupling coefficient and electromechanical coupling factor. First, by a standard homogenization procedure, the authors derive asymptotically the equations of unit cell. Next, the optimal distribution of material and void phases in a periodic unit cell under some constraints is found by using sequential linear programming. A finite element method is used to evaluate the performance characterisics of a unit cell with complex topology. As an example, the authors consider a hydrophone made of one layer of unit cells.