A GENERAL-SOLUTION TECHNIQUE FOR PIEZOTHERMOELASTICITY OF HEXAGONAL SOLIDS OF CLASS 6MM IN CARTESIAN COORDINATES

Piezoelastic materials have attracted considerable recent attention because of their potential use in ''intelligent'' structural systems. In this paper, we propose a general solution technique for three-dimensional problems of piezothermoelasticity for hexagonal solids of class 6mm in cartesian coordinates. Potential functions are introduced to represent the coupled elastic and electric fields. Simple uncoupled governing equations for the potential functions are derived from the stress equations of equilibrium and the equation of electrostatics. As an application of the technique, a piezothermoelastic problem of a thin plate is analyzed. Numerical calculations for the stresses and the electric potential are carried out for a cadmium selenide body exhibiting class 6mm symmetry. Stress distributions are compared with those obtained.for the similar thermoelastic problem without the piezo-effect.