On the micro-mechanical study of 1–3 type piezoelectric composites with semi-coupled thermo-electro-elastic effects

This paper deals with a two-dimensional generalized plane strain micro-mechanical model to simulate semi-coupled thermo-electro-elastic behavior of transversely polarized piezoelectric fibrous composites. The solution domain includes a representative volume element (RVE) consists of a long piezoelectric fiber surrounded by corresponding matrix in a square array arrangement. Fibers have orthotropic and/or transversely isotropic properties while are perfectly bonded to the isotropic matrix. In addition, the constituents are assumed to have linear thermo-electro-elastic behavior. The virtual form of equilibrium equations has been extended to cover the semi-coupled thermo-electro-elastic loading by using appropriate constitutive relations. The element-free Galerkin method is employed to discretize the governing equations in terms of three main primary variables including, displacements, electric potential and temperature. The performance of the present micro-mechanical study reveals close agreement compared with other techniques available in the literature. Based on the present study, ample results are addressed to provide an insight into the effects of the local fields, i.e. displacement, electric potential, electric field, and stress distributions within the RVE for the specific fiber volume fraction.