The smoothed finite element method for time-dependent mechanical responses of MEE materials and structures around Curie temperature

Abstract

Investigating the mechanical behavior of composites materials under harsh environments is of great importance. A standard finite element method (FEM) is still one of the main methods to investigate properties and mechanical responses of magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) materials and structures. However, the computational features of FEM lead to some limitations. In this paper, we proposed the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CS-FEM) for superior calculations, in which the strain smoothing technique is introduced into FEM. We showed, that CS-FEM possesses high accuracy, low mesh restriction, much less computational-cost than FEM, and stronger handling ability when encountering strong mesh distortions and large deformations. CS-FEM with modified Newmark scheme was defined to show an effect of the high-temperature environment and mechanical load on the time-dependent responses of MEE structures. The convergence, effectiveness, and efficiency of CS-FEM were validated via the numerical examples for simplified bi-layer transducer and an energy harvester as MEE intelligent structures. Additionally, the transient performance of intelligent structures around Curie temperature was comprehensively discussed. The presented CS-FEM and obtained results can be used for future studies of the coupled multi-physical problems as well as investigations of the accuracy of intelligent structure models subjected to extreme conditions.