A constitutive model for magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials

This paper is concerned with a macroscopic nonlinear constitutive law for magnetostrictive alloys and ferroelectric ceramics. It accounts for the hysteresis effects which occur in the considered class of materials. The uniaxial model is thermodynamically motivated and based on the definition of a specific free energy function and a switching criterion. Furthermore, an additive split of the strains and the magnetic or electric field strength into a reversible and an irreversible part is suggested. Analog to plasticity, the irreversible quantities serve as internal variables. A one-to-one-relation between the two internal variables provides conservation of volume for the irreversible strains. The material model is able to approximate the ferromagnetic or ferroelectric hysteresis curves and the related butterfly hysteresis curves. Furthermore, an extended approach for ferrimagnetic behavior which occurs in magnetostrictive materials is presented. A main aspect of the constitutive model is its numerical treatment. The finite element method is employed to solve the coupled field problem. Here the usage of the irreversible field strength permits the application of algorithms of computational inelasticity. The algorithmic consistent tangent moduli are developed in closed form. Hence, quadratic convergence in the iterative solution scheme of governing balance equations is obtained.