Static analysis of stepped functionally graded magneto-electro-elastic plates in thermal environment: A finite element study

In this article, a finite element (FE) formulation accounting for multiphysics response of multilayered magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) plates in the thermal environment has been presented. The equilibrium equations of motion are attained using the principle of total potential energy and coupled constitutive relations of MEE material. Maxwell's equation of electrostatics and magnetostatics are used to model the electric and magnetic behavior. The influence of various through thickness temperature distributions on the static parameters of stepped functionally graded magneto-electro-elastic (SFG-MEE) plates is investigated. Further, an extra attention has been devoted to evaluate the effect of product properties (pyroelectric and pyromagnetic coupling), boundary conditions and aspect ratio on the direct (displacements, electric potential and magnetic potential) and derived quantities (stresses, electric displacement, and magnetic flux density) of the SFG-MEE plate. A comparative study is also carried out to analyse the effect of stacking sequence, boundary conditions, pyroeffects, length-to-width ratio and aspect ratios of the SFG-MEE plate. The credibility of the proposed FE model is verified with the results available in the literature. It is expected that the findings in this article may be useful for accurate design and analysis of MEE structures under the thermal environment.