Study on effective properties of 1-3-2 type magneto-electro-elastic composites

• A micromechanics based analytical model is proposed to predict the effective magneto-electro-elastic response of 1-3-2 MEE composites.
• The influence of ceramic base volume fraction to the overall 1-3-2 MEE composite is reported as a function of effective magneto-electric (ME) properties.
• MEE composite has an effective magneto-electric response due to the interaction between the fibers through matrix phase.
• A uni-axial macroscopic model has been developed to study the non-linear effects of MEE composites subjected to high loading conditions.

An analytical method based on parallel and series model (equivalent layered approach) is developed to study the performance of 1-3-2 magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) composite where fibers are active to electrical and magnetic fields. Although the matrix is passive to electrical and magnetic fields, the mechanical strain field in the matrix (elastic phase) couples the electric field of the piezoelectric phase to the magnetic field of the piezomagnetic phase. The combination of three-phase (electro-magneto-elastic) composite has ductility and enhanced properties. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the influence of the ceramic base and the piezomagnetic fiber volume fraction on the modified 1-3 composite. Although the fiber and matrix phases do not exhibit any magneto-electric coupling phenomena, the resulting MEE composite has an effective non-zero magneto-electric response. The proposed model is capable of predicting the effective properties of the composite subjected to magneto-electro-mechanical loading conditions. Simulated results based on the proposed model is compared well with the other models (Mori–Tanaka and finite element methods) from the literature [1]. It is observed that there is a significant influence on effective properties of the composite due to ceramic base volume fraction (V2) of 1-3-2 type multiferroic composite. A simple phenomenological model is developed to predict the non-linear response of ferroelectric and magnetostrictive materials under high electro-magnetic loading conditions.