Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method for piezoelectric problem in heterogeneous media

Abstract

In this paper, we study multiscale methods for piezocomposites. We consider a model of static piezoelectric problem that consists of deformation with respect to components of displacements and a function of electric potential. This problem includes the equilibrium equations, the quasi-electrostatic equation for dielectrics, and a system of coupled constitutive relations for mechanical and electric fields. We consider a model problem that consists of coupled differential equations. The first equation describes the deformations and is given by the elasticity equation and includes the effect of the electric field. The second equation is for the electric field and has a contribution from the elasticity equation. In previous findings, numerical homogenization methods are proposed and used for piezocomposites. We consider the Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM), which is more general and is known to handle complex heterogeneities. The main idea of the GMsFEM is to develop additional degrees of freedom and can go beyond numerical homogenization. We consider both coupled and split basis functions. In the former, the multiscale basis functions are constructed by solving coupled local problems. In particular, coupled local problems are solved to generate snapshots. Furthermore, in the snapshot space, a local spectral decomposition is performed to identify multiscale basis functions. Our approaches share some common concepts with meshless methods as they solve the underlying problem on a coarse mesh, which does not conform heterogeneities and contrast. We discuss this issue in the paper. We show that with a few basis functions per coarse element, one can achieve a good approximation of the solution. Numerical results are presented.