Piezoelectric material properties characterization

Piezoelectric material properties characterization predicts piezoelectric material properties from electrical impedance measurements of a disc-shaped piezoelectric sample.

The feature uses a pre-trained neural network to estimate elastic, piezoelectric, dielectric, and damping properties that can be used directly in piezoelectricity simulations in Quanscient Allsolve.

Prerequisites

Disc-shaped sample

The model is trained for circular disc samples measured under conditions that match the training data. Results for other geometries or measurement setups may be less accurate.

Piezoelectric material properties characterization uses a third party AI service for processing. An organization administrator must enable Third party services in the organization settings before the feature is available.

See the FAQ for instructions on enabling AI features.

Opening the tool

Open a project and go to the Materials section.
Click Add material (or the add menu in the materials list).
From Generate material properties (beta) menu, select Piezoelectric material to open the Piezoelectric material properties characterization dialog.

The workflow has three steps:

Enter disc dimensions
Upload and map impedance measurement data
Review generated properties and add them as a new material

Step 1 — Disc parameters

Enter the physical dimensions of the measured disc:

Parameter	Unit	Description
Diameter	mm	Diameter of the disc
Thickness	mm	Thickness of the disc
Weight	g	Mass of the disc

Density is computed automatically from weight and dimensions using a cylindrical volume model:

\rho = \frac{m}{\pi (d/2)^2 t}

where $m$ is mass, $d$ is diameter, and $t$ is thickness.

Step 2 — Impedance measurement data

CSV file format

Upload a comma- or tab-separated CSV file containing three columns:

Column	Unit	Description
Frequency	Hz	Measurement frequency
Impedance magnitude	$\Omega$	Magnitude of the electrical impedance
Impedance phase	degrees	Phase of the electrical impedance

After uploading, map each required column to the corresponding column in your file. Column names are matched automatically when possible (for example freq, z_mag, or impedance_magnitude).

All three columns must contain the same number of data rows.

Validation rules

The uploaded data is validated before generation:

Check	Requirement
Impedance magnitude	All values must be greater than 0
Impedance phase	All values must be in the range −90° to 90°
Frequency range	Must cover [1/t, 9000/t] Hz, where t is disc thickness in metres

The required frequency range corresponds to a thickness-normalized grid of 1–9000 Hz·m, which is the range used by the underlying model. Wider coverage generally improves prediction quality.

Step 3 — Generated material properties

Click Generate to run the characterization. When complete, review the predicted material properties before adding them to your project.

Click Add as new material to create a material with the generated properties. The new material is added to your project and can be assigned to regions like any other material.

Predicted properties

The model predicts the following material constants from your impedance data and disc geometry:

Property	Symbol	Unit	Material property in Allsolve
Elastic stiffness	$c_{11}$ , $c_{12}$ , $c_{13}$ , $c_{33}$ , $c_{44}$	Pa	Elasticity matrix
Piezoelectric stress	$e_{31}$ , $e_{33}$	C/m²	Piezoelectric coupling matrix
Relative permittivity	$\varepsilon_{33}^S$	—	Electric permittivity (33 component)
Mechanical quality factor	$Q$	—	Mass and stiffness damping coefficients

Density from the disc measurements is set as the Density property.

Damping coefficients are expressed using the mechanical quality factor $Q$ through the qtoalpha(f, Q) and qtobeta(f, Q) functions, which convert $Q$ into mass and stiffness proportional damping suitable for Solid mechanics and Elastic waves simulations.

Generated vs fixed values

In the preview, predicted values are marked with . Some matrix entries cannot be determined from a disc impedance measurement alone; these are taken from a reference PZT dataset and marked with :

Material property	Fixed entries	Reason
Piezoelectric stress	$e_{15}$	Not identifiable from disc impedance alone
Relative permittivity	$\varepsilon_{11}^S$ , $\varepsilon_{22}^S$	Not identifiable from disc impedance alone

The elasticity matrix also includes a derived shear component $c_{66} = (c_{11} - c_{12}) / 2$ , computed from the predicted $c_{11}$ and $c_{12}$ values.

Limitations

Sample geometry: The model is designed for disc-shaped samples. Other shapes are not supported.
Fixed matrix entries: Properties that cannot be extracted from disc measurements use reference PZT values and may not match your specific material in those components.
Prediction accuracy: Results depend on measurement quality, frequency coverage, and how closely your sample matches the training conditions. Treat outputs as estimates and validate against known data or experiments when possible.
Third party processing: The feature requires third party services to be enabled for your organization.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Possible cause
Feature not available	Third party services not enabled in organization settings
Frequency range error	Measurement data does not span the required range for the given disc thickness
Impedance magnitude error	One or more magnitude values are zero or negative
Impedance phase error	One or more phase values fall outside −90° to 90°
Generation failed	Invalid or incomplete input data; check CSV mapping and disc parameters

If generation fails after validation passes, verify that all disc parameters are positive numbers and that the CSV contains numeric values in every mapped column.