An electromechanical liquid crystal model of vesicles

An electromechanical liquid crystal model is developed for characterizing the equilibrium morphology of a lipid vesicle under coupled mechanical and electrical fields. A general equation that governs the vesicle shape is established, which incorporates the effects of elastic bending, osmotic pressure, surface tension, Maxwell pressure, as well as flexoelectric and dielectric properties of the lipid membrane. As an illustration of the model, the problem of an axisymmetric vesicle (e.g., a sphere or a cylinder) in a uniform electric field is considered in some detail, with results in agreement with relevant experimental results. The model provides an efficient tool for studying morphological evolution of dielectric vesicles under mechanical and electrical fields.     

Morphological stability analysis of vesicles with mechanical–electrical coupling effects

Using a recently established liquid crystal model for vesicles, we present a theoretical method to analyze the morphological stability of liquid crystal vesicles in an electric field. The coupled mechanical-electrical effects associated with elastic bending, osmotic pressure, surface tension, Max- well pressure, as well as flexoelectric and dielectric proper- ties of the membrane are taken into account. The first and second variations of the free energy are derived in a com- pact form by virtue of the surface variational principle. The former leads to the shape equation of a vesicle embedded in an electric field, and the latter allows us to examine the stabil- ity of a given vesicle morphology. As an illustrative exam- ple, we analyze the stability of a spherical vesicle under a uniform electric field. This study is helpful for understanding and revealing the morphological evolution mechanisms of vesicles in electric fields and some associated phenomena of cells.     

Modification of the elastic properties of nanostructures with surface charges in applied electric fields

The influences of applied electric fields and surface charges on elastic modulus of nanostructures such as nanowires and nanofilms are investigated within the framework of classic continuum mechanics. Under an applied electric field, the surfaces of structures are subjected to the electrostatic forces (negative pressure) along the direction of the electric field, and the resulting surface charges also change the surface mechanical properties due to the Hellman–Feynman (H–F) forces. Through incorporating the surface energy from the negative pressure and the H–F forces into surface free energy, the exact and analytical expressions of the effective elastic modulus of nanowires and nanofilms are addressed by considering the surface energy effects on the elastic modulus of nanostructures, which involves the contribution of the applied electric field and surface charges. The numerical results indicate that applied electric fields parallel to the axis of the nanowire and nanofilms enhance the transverse Young's modulus while reducing axial modulus of nanostructures. The effective modulus of nanowires and nanofilms with lateral surface charges depends on the surface charges density and the sign of the charges. In addition, the effect of electric field and surface charges on Young's moduli of nanowires and nanofilms has been found to be sensitive to structural geometric dimensions such as the thickness of the film and the diameter of the wire.     

Three-dimensional analysis of defects in a piezoelectric material

In this paper, the Green's function technique is used to develop a solution of an infinite, piezoelectric medium containing either an ellipsoidal cavity or a flat elliptical crack. The coupled elastic and electric fields both inside the cavity and on the boundary of the cavity are obtained, and the stress intensity factor and the electric field intensity factor are also obtained for an elliptical crack. It is found that; (1) the coupled elastic and electric fields inside the cavity keep uniform when the external elastic field and electric field are constant; (2) the behavior of the stress and electric field components in the neighborhood of the crack tip shows the classical type of singularity. The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Effects of static electric field on the fracture behavior of piezoelectric ceramics

The paper gives an overview on experimental observations of the failure behavior of electrically insulating and conducting cracks in piezoelectric ceramics. The experiments include the indentation fracture test, the bending test on smooth samples, and the fracture test on pre-notched (or pre-cracked) compact tension samples. For electrically insulating cracks, the experimental results show a complicated fracture behavior under electrical and mechanical loading. Fracture data are much scattered when a static electric field is applied. A statistically based fracture criterion is required. For electrically conducting cracks, the experimental results demonstrate that static electric fields can fracture poled and depoled lead zirconate titanate ceramics and that the concepts of fracture mechanics can be used to measure the electrical fracture toughness. Furthermore, the electrical fracture toughness is much higher than the mechanical fracture toughness. The highly electrical fracture toughness arises from the greater energy dissipation around the conductive crack tip under purely electric loading, which is impossible under mechanical loading in the brittle ceramics. The project supported by an RGC grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China     

A theoretical model for electroelastic analysis in piezoelectric fibre push-out test

A theoretical model is presented to study the elastic deformation process and frictional sliding behavior in single piezoelectric fibre push-out tests. Based on the theoretical model and some necessary simplifications, stress and electric fields are obtained for push-out tests of a circular piezoelectric fibre embedded in an elastic matrix. Numerical results of a piezoelectric fibre/expoxy matrix system are presented to verify the proposed formulation. The study shows that there is a significant effect of the piezoelectric parameter and embedded fibre length on stress transfer, electric field distribution and load-displacement curve of the frictional sliding process. This study also indicates that the piezoelectric effect has a distinct influence on the mechanical behavior and properties of the interface in a fibre/matrix system.     

悬臂铁磁板磁弹性耦合作用的力学分析

对有限板宽的悬臂铁磁板在外磁场中的磁弹性相互耦合作用的力学行为，建立了描述板弯曲和稳定性的理论模型及有限元定量分析程序，研究了外磁场倾斜角对板磁弹性失稳的临界磁场值的影响。     

Bending of multiferroic laminated rectangular plates with imperfect interlaminar bonding

The bending problem of a multiferroic rectangular plate with magnetoelectric coupling and imperfect interfaces is investigated via three-dimensional exact theory. A generalized spring layer model is proposed to characterize the imperfection of the bonding behavior at interfaces. In particular, the linear relation between the electric displacement and the jump of electric potential, the corresponding one for the magnetic field as well as linear relations among different physical fields are adopted. State space formulations are established, which, compared to the analysis for perfect laminates, only introduces a so-called interfacial transfer matrix. The present analysis can be readily used for the piezoelectric, piezomagnetic and elastic laminates by setting the proper material constants as zero. Numerical results are presented and discussed.     

Elastic fields around a nanosized spheroidal cavity under arbitrary uniform remote loadings

When the size of a cavity shrinks to nanometers, surface effect plays an important role in its mechanical behavior. Based on the surface elasticity, we investigated the elastic fields around a spheroidal cavity embedded in an isotropic elastic medium subjected to arbitrary uniform loadings. Using the displacement potential functions method, we derived the general solution of elastic fields around a nanosized spheroidal cavity with surface effect. For six independent loading cases, the surface effects on the elastic fields around a cavity are presented in detail. It is shown that the elastic fields near a nanosized cavity depend not only on the shape and the size of the cavity but also on the residual surface tension and the surface elastic constants. The surface effect is different in different locations of the nanosized spheroidal cavity and under different remote loadings. The present results are clearly different from the classical ones, and are useful to the damage analysis and prediction of the effective moduli of heterogeneous materials containing nanosized cavities.     

Large deflection of a non-linear,elastic, asymmetric Ludwick cantilever beam subjected to horizontal force,vertical force and bending torque at the free end

The investigated cantilever beam is characterized by a constant rectangular cross-section and is subjected to a concentrated constant vertical load, to a concentrated constant horizontal load and to a concentrated constant bending torque at the free end. The same beam is made by an elastic non-linear asymmetric Ludwick type material with different behavior in tension and compression. Namely the constitutive law of the proposed material is characterized by two different elastic moduli and two different strain exponential coefficients. The aim of this study is to describe the deformation of the beam neutral surface and particularly the horizontal and vertical displacements of the free end cross-section. The analysis of large deflection is based on the Euler–Bernoulli bending beam theory, for which cross-sections, after the deformation, remain plain and perpendicular to the neutral surface; furthermore their shape and area do not change. On the stress viewpoint, the shear stress effect and the axial force effect are considered negligible in comparison with the bending effect. The mechanical model deduced from the identified hypotheses includes two kind of non-linearity: the first due to the material and the latter due to large deformations. The mathematical problem associated with the mechanical model, i.e. to compute the bending deformations, consists in solving a non-linear algebraic system and a non-liner second order ordinary differential equation. Thus a numerical algorithm is developed and some examples of specific results are shown in this paper.     

Higher order zig-zag theory for fully coupled thermo-electric–mechanical smart composite plates

A higher order zig-zag plate theory is developed to refine the prediction of the mechanical, thermal, and electric behaviors fully coupled. Both in-plane displacement and temperature fields through the thickness are constructed by superimposing linear zig-zag field to the smooth globally cubic varying field. Smooth parabolic distribution through the thickness is assumed in the out-of-plane displacement field in order to consider transverse normal deformation. Linear zig-zag form is adopted in the electric potential. The layer-dependent degrees of freedom of displacement and temperature fields are expressed in terms of reference primary degrees of freedom by applying interface continuity conditions as well as bounding surface conditions of transverse shear stresses and transverse heat fluxes. Thus the proposed theory is not only accurate but also efficient. Through the numerical examples of coupled and uncoupled analysis, the accuracy and efficiency of the present theory are demonstrated. The present theory is suitable in the predictions of fully coupled behaviors of thick smart composite plate under mechanical, thermal, and electric loads combined.     

Effect of initial stress on the propagation behavior of Love waves in a layered piezoelectric structure

The propagation behavior of Love waves in a layered piezoelectric structure with an initial stress is investigated in this article. It involves a thin piezoelectric layer bonded perfectly to an elastic substrate. Solutions of the mechanical displacement and electrical potential function are obtained for the piezoelectric layer and elastic substrate by solving the coupled electromechanical field equations. The phase velocity equations of the Love wave propagation and the stress fields in the layered piezoelectric structure are obtained for electrical open and short cases on the free surface, respectively. The effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity, the stress fields and the coupled electromechanical factor are discussed, respectively. Three sets of piezoelectric layer–elastic substrate systems are considered, i.e. BaTiO₃ ceramic layer–borosilicate glass substrate, PZT-5H ceramic layer–borosilicate glass substrate, and PZT-5H ceramic layer–SiO₂ glass substrate. It is seen that the phase velocity of the Love wave propagation decreases with the increase of the magnitude of the initial stress. The coupled electromechanical factor increases remarkably, as the magnitude of the initial the stress is greater than 100 MPa. This is useful for the design of acoustic surface wave devices.     

考虑Steigmann-Ogden表面的微纳米圆柱解析模型

基于Steigmann-Ogden（S-O）表面理论,研究了圆柱形微纳米材料在轴向对压荷载作用下的力学性能。利用级数展开求解材料内部的弹性控制方程,获得了考虑表面效应时的域内解析表达式。当所得结果忽略表面弯曲参数时可退化为Gurtin-Murdoch（G-M）表面模型。用文献中有限元数值结果对本理论进行退化验证,结果得到良好一致性。在此基础上,讨论了表面弯曲参数和圆柱尺寸大小对材料特性的影响。结果显示：考虑了表面弯曲效应的S-O模型和G-M模型在应力分布中有很大的不同。另外,随着圆柱尺寸的减小,其表面效应对材料的力学特性的影响逐渐增大。     

Singular surfaces in a linear thermo-elastic dielectric material

Singular surfaces in a linear thermo-elastic dielectric material are considered, where the constitutive equations of the elastic dielectric proposed by Toupin and the heat equations with finite wave velocities are combined. There exist six types of singular surfaces including a stationary one. The velocities, the coupled fields and the variation of the amplitudes of the surfaces with respect to time are investigated. It is found that the amplitude of the mechanical transverse wave rotates during propagation and at the stationary surface the amplitude of the electric field periodically reverses in direction and the one of the polarization field rotates elliptically with the same period.     

Magneto–thermo–electro–elastic transient response in a piezoelectric hollow cylinder subjected to complex loadings

The article presents an analytical solution for magneto–thermo–electro–elastic problems of a piezoelectric hollow cylinder placed in an axial magnetic field subjected to arbitrary thermal shock, mechanical load and transient electric excitation. Using an interpolation method solves the Volterra integral equation of the second kind caused by interaction among magnetic, thermal, electric and mechanical fields, the electric displacement is determined. Thus, the exact expressions for the transient responses of displacement, stresses, electric displacement, electric potential and perturbation of the magnetic field vector in the piezoelectric hollow cylinder are obtained by means of Hankel transforms, Laplace transforms, and inverse Laplace transforms. From sample numerical calculations, it is seen that the present method is suitable for a piezoelectric hollow cylinder subjected to arbitrary thermal shock, mechanical load and transient electric excitation, and the result carried out may be used as a reference to solve other transient coupled problems of magneto–thermo–electro–elasticity.     

Charged dislocations in piezoelectric bimaterials

In some piezoelectric semiconductors and ceramic materials, dislocations can be electrically active and could be even highly charged. However, the impact of dislocation charges on the strain and electric fields in piezoelectric and layered structures has not been presently understood. Thus, in this paper, we develop, for the first time, a charged three-dimensional dislocation loop model in an anisotropic piezoelectric bimaterial space to study the physical and mechanical characteristics which are essential to the design of novel layered structures. We first develop the analytical model based on which a line-integral solution can be derived for the coupled elastic and electric fields induced by an arbitrarily shaped and charged three-dimensional dislocation loop. As numerical examples, we apply our solutions to the typical piezoelectric AlGaN/GaN bimaterial to analyze the fields induced by charged square and elliptic dislocation loops. Our numerical results show that, except for the induced elastic (mechanical) displacement, charges along the dislocation loop could substantially perturb other induced fields. In other words, charges on the dislocation loop could significantly affect the traditional dislocation-induced stress/strain, electric displacement, and polarization fields in piezoelectric bimaterials.     

The coupled effects of mechanical deformation and electronic properties in carbon nanotubes

Coupled effects of mechanical and electronic behavior in single walled carbon nanotu besare investigated by using quantum mechanics and quantum molecular dynamics. It is found that external applied electric fields can cause charge polarization and significant geometric deformation in metallic and semi-metallic carbon nanotubes. The electric induced axial tension ratio can be up to 10% in the armchair tube and 8.5% in the zigzag tube. Pure external applied load has little effect on charge distribution，but indeed influences the energy gap. Tensile load leads to a narrower energy gap and compressive load increases the gap. When the CNT is tensioned under an external electric field, the effect of mechanical load on the electronic structures of the CNT becomes significant, and the applied electric field may reduce the critical mechanical tension load remarkably. Size effects are also discussed.     

Love waves in functionally graded piezoelectric materials

To investigate the features of Love waves in a layered functionally graded piezoelectric structure, the mathematical model is established on the basis of the elastic wave theory, and the WKB method is applied to solve the coupled electromechanical field differential equation. The solutions of the mechanical displacement and electrical potential function are obtained for the piezoelectric layer and elastic substrate. The dispersion relations of Love waves are deduced for electric open and short cases on the free surface respectively. The actual piezoelectric layer–elastic substrate systems are taken into account, and some corresponding numerical examples are proposed comparatively. Thus, the effects of the gradient variation about material constants on the phase velocity, the group velocity, the coupled electromechanical factor and the cutoff frequency are discussed in detail. So the propagation behaviors of Love waves in inhomogeneous medium is revealed, and the dispersion and the anti-dispersion are analyzed. The conclusions are significant both theoretically and practically for the surface acoustic wave devices.     

横向交流电场下液膜参数不稳定性分析

当将运动的平面液膜置于横向的交流电场之间时会产生参数振荡现象.为了得到交流电场下平面液膜的色散关系并为液膜的破碎行为分析提供理论基础,本文基于漏电介质模型对液体的电学特性进行假设,对平面液膜在直流和交流电场下的参数不稳定性进行了分析.由于主流是基于时间的流动, 在稳定性分析中引入了Floquet理论. 在文中,将电场定义为部分交流电场和部分直流电场共同耦合后的混合型电场. 最后,波数和不稳定增长率之间的无量纲色散方程可由矩阵的形式表示.本文考虑了多种参数对不稳定的影响, 包括气液密度比、韦伯数、雷诺数、欧拉数、 松弛时间以及衡量交流电场占比的参数及频率参数,并得知欧拉数同时影响毛细不稳定性及参数不稳定性,交流电场占比对不稳定性的影响体现在恒定电场力上, 而交流电场频率主要影响参数不稳定性. 为了在实验中更容易地寻求参数振荡现象,增大电欧拉数及减小交流电场频率是有效的方法.      

Buoyancy-driven motion of a two-dimensional bubble or drop through a viscous liquid in the presence of a vertical electric field

The effect of an electric field on the buoyancy-driven motion of a two-dimensional gas bubble rising through a quiescent liquid is studied computationally. The dynamics of the bubble is simulated numerically by tracking the gas–liquid interface when an electrostatic field is generated in the vertical gap of the rectangular enclosure. The two phases of the system are assumed to be perfect dielectrics with constant but different permittivities, and in the absence of impressed charges, there is no free charge in the fluid bulk regions or at the interface. Electric stresses are supported at the bubble interface but absent in the bulk and one of the objectives of our computations is to quantify the effect of these Maxwell stresses on the overall bubble dynamics. The numerical algorithm to solve the free-boundary problem relies on the level-set technique coupled with a finite-volume discretization of the Navier–Stokes equations. The sharp interface is numerically approximated by a finite-thickness transition zone over which the material properties vary smoothly, and surface tension and electric field effects are accounted for by employing a continuous surface force approach. A multi-grid solver is applied to the Poisson equation describing the pressure field and the Laplace equation governing the electric field potential. Computational results are presented that address the combined effects of viscosity, surface tension, and electric fields on the dynamics of the bubble motion as a function of the Reynolds number, gravitational Bond number, electric Bond number, density ratio, and viscosity ratio. It is established through extensive computations that the presence of the electric field can have an important effect on the dynamics. We present results that show a substantial increase in the bubble’s rise velocity in the electrified system as compared with the corresponding non-electrified one. In addition, for the electrified system, the bubble shape deformations and oscillations are smaller, and there is a reduction in the propensity of the bubble to break up through increasingly larger oscillations.