The effective properties of piezocomposites, part II: The effective electroelastic moduli

Since piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been widely used as smart materials and smart structures, it is more and more important to obtain the closed-from solutions of the effective properties of piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions. Based on the closed-from solutions of the electroelastic Eshelby's tensors obtained in the part I of this paper and the generalized Budiansky's energy-equivalence framework, the closed-form general relations of effective electroelastic moduli of the piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions are given. The relations can be applicable for several micromechanics models, such as the dilute solution and the Mori-Tanaka's method. The difference among the various models is shown to be the way in which the average strain and the average electric field of the inclusion phase are evaluated. Comparison between predicted and experimental results shows that the theoretical values in this paper agree quite well with the experimental results. These expression can be readily utilized in analysis and design of piezocomposites. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China