Similarities between piezoelectric, thermal and other internal means of exciting vibrations

Abstract

There is a striking similarity between piezoelectric, thermal and other internal volume forces. Thus, methods used for understanding and predicting piezoelectric vibrations can be used for, for instance, thermally activated vibrations in silicon structures. The author shows such a method for beam-shaped structures. A comparison between the efficiency of thermal and piezoelectric excitations, as well as with external electrostatic excitation, is made. The complex problem of correct choice of elastic constants is mentioned.