Multi-coating inhomogeneities approach for the effective thermo-electro-elastic properties of piezoelectric composite materials

This work presents a micromechanics-based model to predict the effective thermo-electro-elastic properties of a piezoelectric composite materials containing ellipsoidal multi-coated inhomogeneities. A finite element analysis is also performed for two-phase piezoelectric composite materials using ABAQUS finite element software. The results obtained from the multi-coating homogenization method show good agreement with the existing experimental results and the finite element results. The inhomogeneities’s shape effect as well as the poling direction and the coating effects are investigated. The results show that a proper choice of materials and inhomogeneities’s geometry can lead to the desired thermo-electro-elastic properties.