Effective properties of piezoelectric fiber-reinforced composites with imperfect interface

Composites of piezoelectric materials are widely used in practical applications such as medical devices, nondestructive testing devices, and intelligent or smart structures. The study of mechanics and effective properties of piezocomposites is crucial to the design and development of this class of materials. In this paper, a micromechanics model is developed to determine the effective properties of piezoelectric fiber-reinforced composite materials with imperfect fiber-matrix interface bonding conditions. The micromechanics analysis is based on the periodic microfield micromechanics theory and the boundary element method (BEM). The imperfect bonding between the piezoelectric fibers and matrix is taken into account and represented by a spring-factor parameter. Selected numerical results are presented to show the influence of fiber-volume fraction, material properties of fiber and matrix, and interface bonding conditions on the effective properties of piezoelectric fiber-reinforced composites.