Abstract
Owing to their applications in devices such as in electromechanical sensors, actuators and nanogenerators, the consideration of size-dependent properties in the electromechanical response of composites is of great importance. In this study, a closed-form solution based on the linear piezoelectricity, Kirchhoff’s plate theory and Navier’s solution was developed, to envisage the electromechanical behaviors of hybrid graphene-reinforced piezoelectric composite (GRPC) plates, considering the flexoelectric effect. The governing equations and respective boundary conditions were obtained, using Hamilton’s variational principle for achieving static deflection and resonant frequency. Moreover, the different parameters considering aspect ratio, thickness of plate, different loadings (inline, point, uniformly distributed load (UDL), uniformly varying load (UVL)), the combination of different volume fraction of graphene and piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate are considered to attain the desired bending deflection and frequency response of GRPC. Different mode shapes and flexoelectric coefficients are also considered and the results reveal that the proper addition of graphene percentage and flexoelectric effect on the static and dynamic responses of GRPC plate is substantial. The obtained results expose that the flexoelectric effect on the piezoelastic response of the bending of nanocomposite plates are worth paying attention to, in order to develop a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS). Our fundamental study sheds the possibility of evolving lightweight and high-performance NEMS applications over the existing piezoelectric materials.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
The recent advancement in nanotechnologies has renewed the interest in size-dependent piezoelectricity and in flexoelectricity, since the large strain gradients often present at the nanoscale that may lead to strong flexoelectric effects even in the non-piezoelectric materials
The flexoelectric effect is characterized into two types: (i) direct flexoelectric effect, which is coupling between the electric response and gradient of mechanical responses; and (ii) converse flexoelectric effect, which refers to coupling between the mechanical responses and gradient of electric response
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Naskar and co-authors [28,29,30,31,32] derived new micromechanical analysis for envisaging effective properties of fiber-reinforced composite and functionally graded material by using a novel stochastic representative volume element technique, considering spatial distribution with stochastic analysis and uncertainty quantifications They have carried out static and dynamic characteristic including sensitivity and frequency analysis of laminated composite and FG material by using probabilistic and non-probabilistic uncertainty quantification approach. Kundalwal and co-authors [10,33,34,35] studied the electromechanical response of graphene-based nanocomposite (GNC) and its different structural elements, such as beam, plate, wire and shell, by incorporating piezoelectric graphene nanofiber in polyimide matrix They predicted the overall effective properties of GNC, using analytical and numerical models.
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