Multiscale Modeling of Piezoelectric Materials
Piezoelectric materials possess tremendous potential in twenty-first century engineering applications. A high-fidelity model is sought that can more accurately predict piezoelectric behavior by embedding parameters typically associated with the fine scale (i.e. atomic scale) into contemporary piezoelectric macro scale formulation. The research presented is theoretical and demonstrates how this can be realized. The material examined is lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT). The model presented utilizes an energy potential based on atomistic attractive forces to develop an elastic modulus that is incorporated into classical macro scale piezoelectric governing equations -- in-lieu-of the standard elasticity tensor. Also presented will be ideas for future work where-by the atomistic modulus is utilized in a variational multiscale environment.
