Computational modelling of microcracking effects in polycrystalline piezoelectric ceramics

✍ Scribed by Johannes Utzinger; Paul Steinmann; Andreas Menzel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 530 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0936-7195
• DOI: 10.1002/gamm.200890008

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Piezoelectric ceramics nowadays are widely commercialised in various fields of engineering technology and related constitutive modelling approaches constitute an active field of research. The physical performance of these materials is often limited by fatigue effects, possibly in combination with micro‐cracking phenomena. In this contribution, such micro‐crackbased fatigue effects in ferroelectric materials are computationally investigated by applying a cohesive‐type approach embedded into a finite element context. The geometry or rather discretisation of a representative specimen elaborated in this work refers to a natural grain structure on the meso‐level. Accordingly, the overall response of the underlying grains is approximated by means of coupled continuum elements, while the grain boundaries are discretised with interface elements. Interfacial constitutive relations are chosen to reflect highcycle‐fatigue, which finally is demonstrated by a fatigue‐motivated benchmark‐type boundary value problem. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)