Dispersion of waves and characteristic wave surfaces in functionally graded piezoelectric plates

An inhomogeneous layer element method is presented to analyze the dispersion of waves and characteristic wave surfaces in plates of functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM). In this method, the FGPM plate is divided into a number of layered elements. The elemental elastic and electric properties are assumed as linear functions of the thickness to adopt the variety of the material property of FGPM. The Hamilton principle is applied to determine the governing equations. The phase velocity surface, phase slowness surface, phase wave surface, group velocity surface, group slowness surface, and group wave surface for FGPM plate are formulated using Rayleigh quotient and the orthogonality condition of the eigenvectors. These six surfaces are then used to illustrate the characteristics of waves in FGPM plates. Numerical examples are presented using the present formulations to analyze dispersions and characteristics of waves in FGPM plates.