ELECTROMECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYVINYLIDENE FLUORIDE (PVDF) FILMS IN BIAXIAL EXTENSION

Polyvinylidene Flouride (PVDF) is a piezoelectric material which finds numerous applications as sensors and actuators. Significant developments have taken place in characterizing the mechanical and the electromechanical response of PVDF. The characterization of the response of PVDF reported in literature was conducted under uniaxial loading. This paper discusses the experimental investigations carried out to observe the response of PVDF films under uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions. These thin films have been subjected to static as well as dynamic mechanical loading. The response of the film under theses loading conditions was observed through the stress strain curves obtained for the different tests conducted. The anisotropic behavior of the material was also studied by conducting uniaxial static tests along two mutually perpendicular directions.