Computationally-efficient homogenization and localization of unidirectional piezoelectric composites with partially cracked interface

Abstract

The homogenized and localized responses of unidirectional piezoelectric composites with partially cracked interface are investigated in this contribution. To simulate the electro-elastic fully-anisotropic constitutive behavior, a micromechanical multiphysics finite-element model is developed through adopting higher-order internal trial functions. The generated results are validated against the independently-developed generalized Eshelby solution with piezoelectric effects, a comparable finite-volume (FV) technique, and ABAQUS simulations with excellent agreement. More importantly, the present work investigates thus-far little explored effects of several microstructural details including the fiber/matrix property ratio, an elliptical inclusion, multiple periodic inclusions, as well as the crack length and poling direction, on either effective properties or local stress/electric field distributions. It is also demonstrated that the present model is advantageous to commercial finite-element packages in two aspects. Firstly, the periodic boundary conditions of the nodal displacements and electric potential are enforced explicitly. Secondly, the ability to generate a complete set of homogenized moduli with two-dimensional architectures sets the present model apart from the readily available commercial codes that require a three-dimensional unit cell analysis.