A new theory for electroded piezoelectric plates and its finite element application for the forced vibrations of quartz crystal resonators (Q1579811)

The authors present a new theory for the study of electroded piezoelectric plates along the guidelines of the well-known Mindlin's theory. The main point here is that the electrical boundary conditions on the electroded plate faces are accomodated from the outset, making the new approach simpler and more advantageous for handling complicated geometries. As in Mindlin's theory, the electric potential and the mechanical displacement are expressed as power series in the thickness coordinate. Taking into account the introduced modifications, the new forms of two-dimensional constitutive and charge equations are derived from the three-dimensional formulation, and only terms up to the third order are retained. Additionally, the authors present a formula for the capacitance ratio. A finite element formulation of the problem is given following the standard variational approach. Introduction of generalized quantities allows to incorporate electrical and mechanical variables into one equation only, providing an approach which differs from the traditional technique where two equations are solved separately. The effectiveness of the new theory is demonstrated by the solution of numerical examples concerning the forced vibrations of quartz crystal resonators, and by comparison of the obtained results with available experimental data. It is shown, among others, that the frequency spectrum, the resonance frequencies and the capacitance ratio for a crystal plate agree well with existing experimental data.