A simple and efficient method for modeling piezoelectric composite and
porous materials to solve direct and inverse 2D problems is presented in
this paper. The method is based on discretizing the problem domain into
arbitrary polygonal-shaped regions that resemble the physical shapes of
grains in piezoelectric polycrystalline materials, and utilizing the Trefftz
solution functions derived from the Lekhnitskii formulation for piezoelectric
materials, or for elastic dielectric materials, to express the mechanical and
electrical fields in the interior of each grain or region. A simple collocation
method is used to enforce the continuity of the inter-region primary and
secondary fields, as well as the essential and natural boundary conditions. Each
region may contain a void, an elastic dielectric inclusion, or a piezoelectric
inclusion. The void/inclusion interface conditions are enforced using the
collocation method, or using the special solution set which is available only
for the case of voids (traction-free, charge-free boundary conditions). The
potential functions are written in terms of Laurent series which can describe
interior or exterior domains, while the negative exponents are used only in the
latter case. Because Lekhnitskii’s solution for piezoelectric materials breaks
down if there is no coupling between mechanical and electrical variables, the
paper presents this solution in a general form that can be used for coupled
(piezoelectric) as well as uncoupled (elastic dielectric) materials. Hence, the matrix or
the inclusion can be piezoelectric or elastic dielectric to allow modeling of
different types of piezoelectric composites. The present method can be used for
determining the meso/macro physical properties of these materials as well
as for studying the mechanics of damage initiation at the micro level in
such materials. The inverse formulation can be used for determining the
primary and secondary fields over some unreachable boundaries in piezoelectric
composites and devices; this enables direct numerical simulation (DNS)
and health monitoring of such composites and devices. Several examples
are presented to show the efficiency of the method in modeling different
piezoelectric composite and porous materials in different direct and inverse
problems.
Center for Aerospace Research and
Education (CARE)
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
University of California, Irvine
4200 Engineering Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697
United States
The Hal and Inge Marcus School of
Engineering
Saint Martin’s University
5000 Abbey Way SE, OM 329
Lacey, WA 98503-7500
United States
Center for Aerospace Research and
Education (CARE)
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
University of California, Irvine
4200 Engineering Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697
United States
Faculty of Engineering
King Abdulaziz University
Jeddah 22254
Saudi Arabia