The refined theory of transversely isotropic piezoelectric rectangular beams

The problem of deducing one-dimensional theory from two-dimensional theory for a transversely isotropic piezoelectric rectangular beam is investigated. Based on the piezoelasticity theory, the refined theory of piezoelectric beams is derived by using the general solution of transversely isotropic piezoelasticity and Lur’e method without ad hoc assumptions. Based on the refined theory of piezoelectric beams, the exact equations for the beams without transverse surface loadings are derived, which consist of two governing differential equations: the fourth-order equation and the transcendental equation. The approximate equations for the beams under transverse loadings are derived directly from the refined beam theory. As a special case, the governing differential equations for trans-versely isotropic elastic beams are obtained from the corresponding equations of piezo-electric beams. To illustrate the application of the beam theory developed, a uniformly loaded and simply supported piezoelectric beam is examined.