ANALYSIS OF PIEZOELECTRIC BENDING ACCELEROMETER USING THE EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT

To analyze the piezoelectric bending accelerometer using the equivalen t circuit, a modified method must be used, because the differential eq uation of motion for the accelerometer includes a term for volume forc e due to acceleration. In this work, the piezoelectric bending acceler ometer is divided into many short sections, and the volume force in ea ch section is assumed to be the total force acting at the centroid of the section. Then, each short section can be represented by the equiva lent circuit, and the total force acts as a constant voltage source at a terminal at the center of the section. A piezoelectric bending acce lerometer has been analyzed using the modified equivalent circuit. The calculated voltage sensitivity of the accelerometer is in good agreem ent with the experimental value.