Micromechanics-based prediction of the effective properties of piezoelectric composite having interfacial imperfections

Abstract We derive an analytical expression to predict the effective properties of a particulate-reinforced piezoelectric composite with interfacial imperfections using a micromechanics-based mean–field approach. We correctly derive the analytical formula of the modified Eshelby tensor, the modified concentration tensor, and the effective property equations based on the modified Mori–Tanaka method in the presence of interfacial imperfections. Our results are validated against finite element analyses (FEA) for the entire range of interfacial damage levels, from a perfect to a completely disconnected and insulated interface. For the facile evaluation of the nontrivial tensorial equations, we adopt the Mandel notation to perform tensor operations with 9 × 9 symmetric matrix operations. We apply the method to predict the effective properties of a representative piezoelectric composite consisting of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and SiC reinforcements.