Boundary Element Solution to Size-Dependent Piezoelectric Bimaterials

Abstract

A boundary element formulation based on the consistent couple stress theory is used to analyze two-dimensional size-dependent piezoelectric response in isotropic dielectric materials. In this approach, there exist a size-dependent piezoelectricity or flexoelectricity effect for centrosymmetric materials. The size-dependent effect is specified by one characteristic length scale parameter l, and the electromechanical effect is specified by one flexoelectric coefficient f. This phenomenon is a coupled problem involving mechanical and electrical effects. A boundary-only formulation is used for which the primary variables are displacements, rotations, force-tractions, couple-tractions, electric potential, and normal electric displacement. This BEM formulation is applied to a bimaterial computational problem to confirm the validity of the numerical implementation and to explore the physics of the flexoelectric coupling.