Symplectic Method for the Thin Piezoelectric Plates

The symplectic method for a thin piezoelectric plate problem is developed. The Hamiltonian canonical equation of thin piezoelectric plate is given by using the variational principle. By applying the separation of variables method, we can obtain symplectic orthogonal eigensolutions. As an application, the problem of a thin piezoelectric plate with full edges simply supported under a uniformly distributed load is discussed, and analytical solutions of the deflection and potential of a piezoelectric thin plate are obtained. A numerical example shows that the solutions converge very rapidly. The advantage of this method is that it does not need to assume the predetermined function in advance, so it has better universality. It may also be applied to the problem of thin piezoelectric plate buckling and vibrating.

Thermo-Electro-Mechanical Vibrations of Porous Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Nanoshells

In this work, we aim to study free vibration of functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) cylindrical nanoshells with nano-voids. The present model incorporates the small scale effect and thermo-electro-mechanical loading. Two types of porosity distribution, namely, even and uneven distributions, are considered. Based on Love’s shell theory and the nonlocal elasticity theory, governing equations and corresponding boundary conditions are established through Hamilton’s principle. Then, natural frequencies of FGPM nanoshells with nano-voids under different boundary conditions are analyzed by employing the Navier method and the Galerkin method. The present results are verified by the comparison with the published ones. Finally, an extensive parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of the external electric potential, the nonlocal parameter, the volume fraction of nano-voids, the temperature rise on the vibration of porous FGPM cylindrical nanoshells.

Modified Continuum Mechanics Modeling on Size-Dependent Properties of Piezoelectric Nanomaterials: A Review

Piezoelectric nanomaterials (PNs) are attractive for applications including sensing, actuating, energy harvesting, among others in nano-electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS) because of their excellent electromechanical coupling, mechanical and physical properties. However, the properties of PNs do not coincide with their bulk counterparts and depend on the particular size. A large amount of efforts have been devoted to studying the size-dependent properties of PNs by using experimental characterization, atomistic simulation and continuum mechanics modeling with the consideration of the scale features of the nanomaterials. This paper reviews the recent progresses and achievements in the research on the continuum mechanics modeling of the size-dependent mechanical and physical properties of PNs. We start from the fundamentals of the modified continuum mechanics models for PNs, including the theories of surface piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity and non-local piezoelectricity, with the introduction of the modified piezoelectric beam and plate models particularly for nanostructured piezoelectric materials with certain configurations. Then, we give a review on the investigation of the size-dependent properties of PNs by using the modified continuum mechanics models, such as the electromechanical coupling, bending, vibration, buckling, wave propagation and dynamic characteristics. Finally, analytical modeling and analysis of nanoscale actuators and energy harvesters based on piezoelectric nanostructures are presented.