Piezoelectric effects and Material Stress

The generation of electrical charges in response to mechanical deformation is a distinctive feature of piezoelectric materials. This property can be used to avoid mechanical stresses in special materials. A project currently funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF will make a key contribution to the optimisation of these "intelligent materials".

High levels of mechanical stress reduce the lifespan of construction components. This is true for all types of materials; exposure to mechanical stress is a crucial factor in the duration of their lifespan. When stresses are combined with vibrations they have a particularly negative impact on durability. Intelligent materials that can actively counteract such effects have been available for special applications for some years now. The solution applied here involves a very sophisticated trick of physics: the so-called piezoelectric effect, that is the generation of an electrical charge through deformation, can be used to actively suppress these forces. However, piezoelectric materials are also subject to forces which reduce their durability and finding a way of changing this is the challenge that scientist Jürgen Schöftner has set himself.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-piezoelectric-effects-suppression-material-stresses.html#jCp