COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FINITE ELEMENT MODELS OF REPRESENTATIVE VOLUMES FOR MIXED PIEZOCOMPOSITES WITH VARIOUS CONNECTIVITY

Abstract

The problems of modeling representative volumes for two-phase piezoelectric composites composed of a matrix of base material and inclusions or pores are considered. Representative volumes are constructed in the form of a cube, subdivided by a regular mesh into hexahedral finite elements. A set of algorithms for extracting a subset of elements, which are endowed with material properties of inclusions or pores, is described. The characteristics of the principal features of these algorithms, their advantages and disadvantages for modelling of real piezoelectric composite structures and for solving of the homogenization problems are given. It is noted that the types of connectivity and the properties of representative volumes can sufficiently significantly affect of the values of the effective material moduli of piezoelectric composites.