Discussion Forum

Hi, there

I'm trying to model a 5 layer cantilever beam, one end of the beam is fixed, the other end is free to move. The attached pdf is the layer structure. There are two layers in red, which are the platinum electrodes. They have one pzt layer in blue between them. The yellow layer is a pzt layer that separates platinum electrode 2 and the bottom blue pzt layer. I want to use the top pzt layer and platinum electrodes as an actuator, a terminal is used to make electrode 2 at 0V, a voltage applied on terminal 1 will causes the sandwiched pzt layer to bend. I also want to model the bottom blue pzt layer as a sensor, what I have done is I used a ground node on the top boundary of the bottom pzt and a floating potential on the bottom boundary of the bottom pzt, so when the actuator bends, the sensor pzt also bends, and I can use a probe on the floating potiential boundary to measure the potential generated with respect to ground boundary. I'm not sure if this is a valid way to measure the generated potential on the bottom pzt layer and what probe(point or boundary) and probe expression (electrical potential or floating potential) should I use?

Thanks in advance, Jianan