“…The presence of the new electrodes imposes a dominant electric field, either applied or induced, in the thickness direction, thus perpendicular to the length or width poling direction. Since the mid-90s, the shear mode of monolithic piezoceramic materials has been considered for applications in the design of smart structures (Sun and Zhang, 1995;Benjeddou, Trindade and Ohayon, 1997;Benjeddou, 2007;Trindade and Benjeddou, 2009), including active (Benjeddou, Trindade and Ohayon, 2000;Raja, Prathap and Sinha, 2002;Baillargeon and Vel, 2005), passive (Benjeddou and Ranger, 2006;Trindade and Maio, 2008) and active-passive Santos and Trindade, 2011) vibration control. From these studies, the shear mode seems to be an interesting alternative for stiffer structures, higher frequencies and non-standard shape deflection patterns.…”