OOF2: The Manual

Name

Couplings:PyroElectricity — Pyroelectricity

Details

  • Property Category: PyroElectricity
  • Parameters:

    px
    Crystal X component of polarization contribution due to temperature change. Type: A real number.
    py
    Crystal Y component of polarization contribution due to temperature change. Type: A real number.
    pz
    Crystal Z component of polarization contribution due to temperature change. Type: A real number.
    T0
    Reference temperature. Type: A real number.
    coefficient_type
    Interpretation of the p coefficients, constant strain or constant stress. Type: An object from the ConstancyEnum enumerated class.

  • Fields: Temperature
  • Fluxes: Total_Polarization

Discussion

PyroElectricity is a coupling property which, at its simplest, makes a contribution to the Total_Polarization Flux proportional to the difference between the local Temperature Field and some specified reference temperature, T0.

In practice, the picture is more complicated than this. For systems which have elasticity, thermal expansion, and piezoelectricity, users may wish to model the phenomenon of secondary pyroelectricity, in which an effective pyroelectric coupling arises as a result of the interactions of the other three properties, with a coefficient proportional to the product of the other three coefficients.

In OOF2, this effect can be included by adding a Pyroelectricity property to your material and setting the coefficient_type parameter to Constant stress. The additional ("secondary") contribution will be added in automatically.

Note that the property allows users to specify the pyroelectric coefficient at constant strain, also. In this case, OOF2 will assume that the user has fully specified the desired pyroelectric physics, and will not compute a secondary pyroelectric contribution.

A Material with a PyroElectricity Property must also contain an orientation property. There is no isotropic pyroelectricity.