Scattering of elastic P-waves by a transversely isotropic piezoelectric cylinder embedded in a polymer matrix

The scattering behavior of elastic P-waves by a transversely isotropic piezoelectric cylinder embedded in an infinite polymer matrix is studied. The method of wavefunction expansion is used to formulate the problem. Numerical calculations are carried out for the distribution of stresses, mechanical displacements and electrical potential around the piezoelectric cylinder, respectively. Effects of normalized frequency and incident angle of incident waves, radius of the cylinder on the dynamic stress and electric field concentrations are investigated in detail. It is found that the effect of the incident angle on the dynamic stress concentration is markedly only for the low frequency waves and the maxima of the magnitudes of stresses shift toward the incident side of the piezoelectric cylinder as the normalized frequency increases. This study is useful in designing piezoelectric composites, especially for the case of piezoelectric cylinders aligned sparsely in a matrix medium.