Effect of material inhomogeneity on electromechanical behaviors of functionally graded piezoelectric spherical structures

Based on the three-dimensional linear piezoelectric theory, the elastic analysis is carried out for functionally graded, radially polarized piezoelectric spherical structure subjected to mechanical and electrical loads. The material properties are assumed to be exponential function of the radial position. Frobenius series method is employed to solve the second-order ordinary differential equation with variable coefficient and the closed-form displacement solution is obtained. The obtained solution converges very quickly and is convenient to treat in analyzing the electromechanical fields in the exponentially graded piezoelectric (EGP) hollow sphere subjected to different mechanical and electric loads. The presented numerical results show that the material inhomogeneity has a significant influence on the electromechanical behaviors of the EGP spherical structures.