Analysis for hysteresis of piezoelectric actuator based on microscopic mechanism

The hysteresis widely existing in piezoelectric ceramic actuators seriously affects the positioning accuracy in practical applications. Based on the microscopic displacement mechanism of piezoelectric actuators, this paper studied the displacement mechanism of the electrostrictive effect and the inverse piezoelectric effect from the microscopic polarization mechanism and, at the same time, the displacement mechanism of electric domain reversal in ferroelectric effect. This paper clarified that the inverse piezoelectric effect and the ferroelectric effect are the main causes for the displacement of the piezoelectric actuator. The contribution of the electrostrictive effect microscopically is extremely weak and can be ignored. This paper shows that the relationship between the voltage and displacement of the piezoelectric actuator in the inverse piezoelectric effect is linear, and the hysteresis characteristic mainly exists in the ferroelectric effect. In this paper, we pointed out that there is energy loss during the piezoelectric domain transition of piezoelectric ceramics, and some irreversible non-180° domain steering is the root cause of the hysteresis of the piezoelectric actuator. This paper provides a scientific basis for further hysteresis curves modelling or correcting hysteresis modelling errors of piezoelectric ceramic and for improving the control accuracy of piezoelectric ceramic actuators in practical applications.