Fibrous composites of piezoelectric and piezomagnetic phases

Abstract

We propose a theoretical framework for evaluation of magnetoelectroelastic potentials in a fibrous composite with piezoelectric and piezomagnetic phases, motivated by the technological desire for materials with large magnetoelectric coupling. We show that the problem with transversely isotropic phases can be decomposed into two independent problems, plane strain with transverse electromagnetic fields and anti-plane shear with in-plane electromagnetic fields. We then consider the second problem in detail, and generalize the classic work of Lord Rayleigh (1892) to obtain the electrostatic potential in an ordered conductive composite and its extension to a disordered system by Kuo and Chen (2008) to the current coupled magnetoelectroelastic problem. We use this method to study BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 composites and provide insights into obtaining large effective magnetoelectric coefficient. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.