An analytical formulation in 3D domain for the nonlinear response of piezoelectric slabs under weak electric fields

Piezoceramic materials exhibit different types of nonlinearities depending upon the magnitude of the mechanical and electric field strength within the body. Some of the nonlinear phenomena observed under weak electric fields near resonance frequency excitation are the presence of superharmonics in the response spectra and the jump phenomena etc. In this work, an analytical solution for the nonlinear response of rectangular piezoceramic slabs have been obtained by Rayleigh–Ritz method and perturbation technique in the 3-D domain using a generalized nonlinear electric enthalpy density function. Forced vibration experiments (excitation with electric field) have been conducted on a rectangular piezoceramic slab at varying electric field amplitudes and the analytical solutions have been shown to compare very well with the experimental results.