Nonlinear constitutive law for ferroelectric/ferroelastic material and its finite element realization (Q884855)

The author investigates coupled electromechanical phenomena in ferroelectric/ferro- elastic materials during the procedure of polarization. Each of the irreversible polarization and strain is decomposed into two parts, due to electric field and due to strain. Based on a detailed study of electromechanical hysteresis loops available from experimental data, the author uses some new assumptions to model the electromechanical yielding and isotropic hardening in incremental form. These assumptions are: 1) the increment of remnant polarization induced by electric field is in the same direction as the latter; 2) the increment of maximum principal remnant strain induced by the electric field is parallel to the latter; 3) the increment of stress-induced remnant strain component is proportional to the corresponding stress deviator component; 4) the increment of stress-induced polarization is parallel to maximum compressive deviator principal stress, and always reduces the magnitude of the total poling; 5) the increment of remnant strain is volume preserving; 6) the coercive stress depends on the electric field component in the poling direction, and the coercive electric field depends on the stress deviator component in poling direction. Using a variational principle for ferroelectric/ferroelastic materials with electromechanical coupling, the phenomenological nonlinear, coupled constitutive laws are presented in matrix formulation suitable for finite element analysis. As an illustration, the author examines the situation where a rectangular specimen made of PZT-4 is subjected to a uniaxial electric field from virgin state to fully polarized state, and then iniaxial compressive loading is applied to depolarize the specimen. Results show good agreement with available experimental data.