A theoretical study of the coupling effects in piezoelectric ceramics (Q1303080)

The authors investigate the electro-mechanical coupling in piezoceramic materials. A static two-dimensional problem for a strip is considered, with polarization in the depth direction and symmetric pressures and voltages applied on the surfaces, together with traction-free end surfaces. Under the constraining condition that the first and second derivatives of the electric potential in the depth direction are much larger in magnitude than the corresponding quantities in other directions, the authors reduce basic field equations and constitutive relations to a pair of uncoupled partial differential equations for Airy's stress function and for electric potential. The dimensionless form of these equations involve only three combinations of material constants, instead of nine independent initial values. This greatly facilitates the study of electro-mechanical effects in piezoelectrics. The authors also solve the corresponding boundary value problem and compare their numerical results to those obtained by the finite element method, in order to justify the use of constraining conditions. Ample discussion is presented.