Analysis of porosity influence on the effective moduli of ceramic matrix PZT composite using the simplified finite element model

Abstract

The problem of determining the effective moduli of a ceramic matrix piezocomposite with respect to multiscale porosity was considered. To solve the homogenization problem, the method of effective moduli in the standard formulation, the finite element method and the ANSYS computational package were used. Various models of two-phase and three-phase composites consisting of a piezoceramic matrix, elastic inclusions of corundum and pores of various sizes have been investigated. Finite element models of representative volumes of 3–0 and 3–0–0 connectivities were developed. The results of computational experiments showed that effective moduli depend quite significantly not only on the volume fractions of inclusions and pores, but also on the structure and size of pores in comparison with the characteristic sizes of inclusions.

Keywords

• piezoelectricity
• three-phase piezocomposite
• granular inclusion
• effective modulus
• representative volume
• finite element method