Gap Wave Propagation in Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Material Structures

Shear horizontal gap wave propagating between functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) layer and a layered piezoelectric structure is investigated analytically. The electrically open conditions on strip surface are applied to solve this problem. The phase velocity can be numerically calculated for the electrically open case, with different thickness of the layer and wavenumber. The effect of the gradient variation about material on the phase velocity is discussed in detail. We find that gradient distributing of the material properties has remarkable effect on the phase velocity of the gap waves.