A description of methods and computer programs for the prediction of “coupling properties” in axially-textured polycrystals is presented. Starting data are the single-crystal properties, texture and stereography. The validity and proper protocols for applying the Voigt, Reuss and Hill approximations to estimate coupling properties effective values is analyzed. Working algorithms for predicting mentioned averages are given. Bunge’s symmetrized spherical harmonics expansion of orientation distribution functions, inverse pole figures and (single and polycrystals) physical properties is applied in all stages of the proposed methodology. The established mathematical route has been systematized in a working computer program. The discussion of piezoelectricity in a representative textured ferro-piezoelectric ceramic illustrates the application of the proposed methodology. Polycrystal coupling properties, predicted by the suggested route, are fairly close to experimentally measured ones.

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The tensor nature of single- and polycrystalline materials' physical properties highlights both the diversity of possible technological applications and the difficulties of assimilation for those new to the subject. The Material Properties Open Database (MPOD) [1] is a useful tool that provides access to a wide spectrum of properties tensors for an extensive selection of materials. In the present contribution an extension of the MPOD system is reported. The introduced innovation is the output, in the form of a graphical representation, of registered second, third and fourth rank tensors. The objective, as an educational project, is to provide the crystallographic community a friendly means to help the intuitive understanding of crystalline anisotropy. The given graphical output is the so-called longitudinal surface representation [2]. The accompanying figure shows an example of the MPOD graphical output. Shown surfaces represent the compliance tensor and its inverse (Young's modulus) longitudinal surfaces for a silver single-crystal. MPOD's new version may be accessed by the original website http://www.materialproperties.org/ and also by its Mexican mirror http://mpod.cimav.edu.mx. The MPOD websites continue their development. The international MPOD group systematically adds new published data. Modeling and representing textured polycrystals' properties is on target [3].