The strain induced into isotropic flat plates by surface bonded and embedded piezoceramic patches was investigated. The free piezoceramic patch voltage/strain response was characterized using moire interferometry and Twyman-Green interferometry techniques. Moire interferometry experiments were conducted to investigate the induced strain of actuation in a flat plate with two surface bonded piezoceramic patches and a flat plate with one embedded patch. Three-dimensional finite element models of these two specimens were constructed and analyzed.

The measured in-plane voltage/strain response of a free piezoceramic patch was found to be nearly linear and of a much higher magnitude than the published data. Similarly, the out-of-plane voltage/strain response was found to be much higher in magnitude than the published data as well as being non-linear.

Correlation between the moire experiment concerning the surface bonded patch specimen and the corresponding finite element model was good, indicating the validity of the modeling technique. Possible depoling damage of the embedded patch caused the correlation between the experiment and analysis of this specimen to be poor. Both finite element models predicted stresses that are not statically significant but may represent problems over many loading cycles.