Coupled electro-elastic analysis of functionally graded piezoelectric material plates

A unified formulation of finite layer methods (FLMs), based on the Reissner mixed variational theorem (RMVT), is developed for the three-dimensional (3D) coupled electro-elastic analysis of simply-supported, functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) plates with open- and closed-circuit surface conditions and under electro-mechanical loads. In this formulation, the material properties of the plate are assumed to obey an exponent-law varying exponentially through the thickness coordinate, and the plate is divided into a number of finite rectangular layers, in which the trigonometric functions and Lagrange polynomials are used to interpolate the in- and out-of-plane variations of the primary field variables of each individual layer, respectively, such as the elastic displacement, transverse shear and normal stress, electric potential, and normal electric displacement components. The relevant orders used for expanding these variables in the thickness coordinate can be freely chosen as the linear, quadratic and cubic orders. Four different mechanical/electrical loading conditions applied on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate are considered, and the corresponding coupled electro-elastic analysis of the loaded FGPM plates is undertaken. The accuracy and convergence rate of the RMVT-based FLMs are assessed by comparing their solutions with the exact 3D piezoelectricity ones available in the literature.