Anisotropic multiferroic ellipsoidal particulate composites

Abstract

The objective of this work is to investigate the magnetoelectricity (ME) of an ellipsoidal particulate composite made of piezoelectric and piezomagnetic phases. We employ a micromechanical model, the Mori-Tanaka mean-field method, to evaluate the effects of crystallographic orientations of the constituents, and the aspect ratio, volume fraction, and orientations of the ellipsoids. We compare this micromechanical solution with those predicted by the finite element analysis, which provides the benchmark results for a periodic array of inclusions. Based on this model, we find the optimal aspect ratio and volume fractions of the inclusion when the ellipsoids are poled along the normal direction. Further, we show that, for the case of CoFe2O4\documentclass[12pt]$$\hbox {BaTiO}_{{3}}$$\end{document} ellipsoidal particulate composite, the ME voltage coefficient can be enhanced at the optimal orientation as compared to those at normal cut.