Local electroelastic field and effective electroelastic moduli of piezoelectric nanocomposites with interface effect

Due to the large ratio of surface area to volume in nanoscale objects, the property of surfaces and interfaces likely becomes a prominent factor in controlling the behavior of nano-heterogeneous materials. In this work, based on the Gurtin-Murdoch surface/interface elastic theory, a distinct expression is derived for embedded nano-inclusion in an infinite piezoelectric matrix coupled with interface effect. For the problem of a spherical inclusion in transversely isotropic piezoelectric medium, we reach a conclusion that the elastic and electric field are uniform when eigen-strain and eigen-electric field imposed on the inclusion are uniform even in the presence of the interface influence. The electroelastic fields in the inclusion are related to both interface electroelastic parameters and the radius of the inclusion. Then overall properties of the composites are estimated by using the dilute distribution model. Numerical results reveal that the effective electroelastic moduli are function of the interface parameters and the size of the nano-inhomogeneities.