Exact solutions for characterization of electro-elastically graded materials

The present paper deals with a class of functionally graded materials (FGM), called active FGM that has electro-elastically graded material phases. An active FGM system leads to minimization of stress concentration that arises due to mismatch in the electrical and elastic properties of the constituent phases. This work focuses on the characterization of the through thickness stresses of an active FGM subjected to electrical excitation. The structure is comprised of a substrate, an electro-elastically graded layer and an active layer. A formulation for exact solutions of the system based on Euler–Bernoulli theory is presented. Power-law variation of the composition of the two phases in the graded layer is considered. Performance of linearly gradient FGM for a range of stiffness and electrical property ratios of the active and substrate materials have been studied. It is observed that the electrical strain component and the compositional gradation significantly influence the stress characteristics of the active FGM.