Fully-coupled Computational Modeling of the Dynamic Response of 1-3 Multiferroic Composite Structures

Abstract

In this research, a fully-coupled finite element-based Multiphysics computational study was used to investigate a multiferroic composite structure comprised of a Terfenol-D magnetostrictive cylinder and a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric cylinder in a concentric bilayer configuration. The modeling parameters were carefully selected to address fundamental limitations in previous modeling efforts and accurately capture complex physical phenomena, including magnetic shielding, nonuniform magnetization, and principal strains. The composite structure was subjected to simultaneous stimuli of an AC electric field to actuate the outer PZT cylinder and a bias static magnetic field to activate the inner Terfenol-D cylinder. Composite geometry, configuration, and loading parameters were selected following prior experimental studies to simulate realistic operating conditions of the multiferroic structure, where the latter was used to validate the results of the computational model. The electric, magnetic, and mechanical responses of the multiferroic composite structure were vigorously investigated using the resulting three-dimensional full-field solution. It was found to be well-ordered with previous results, demonstrating the utility of the computational framework in exploiting the performance of the 1-3 multiferroic composite structures. To further elucidate the validity of the results, the experimental results from noncontact spatiotemporal laser vibrometer measurements, collected from a physical composite structure with analogous dimensions, were benchmarked with the simulation results. In all, the overall response of the model was validated with experimental displacement and strain measurements which were found to be in close agreement.