Lamb waves propagation in functionally graded piezoelectric materials by Peano-series method.

The Peano-series expansion is used to investigate the propagation of the lowest-order symmetric (S0) and antisymmetric (A0) Lamb wave modes in a functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) plate. Aluminum nitride has been retained for illustration, it is polarized along the thickness axis, and at the same time the material properties change gradually perpendicularly to the plate with an exponential variation. The effects of the gradient variation on the phase velocity and the coupling electromechanical factor are obtained. Appropriate curves are given to reflect their behavior with respect to frequency. The highest value of the electromechanical coupling factor has been observed for S0 mode, it is close to six percent, conversely for A0 mode it does not exceed 1.5%. The coupling factor maxima undergo a shift toward the high frequency area when the corresponding gradient coefficient increases. The Peano-series method computed under Matlab software, gives rapid convergence and accurate phase velocity when analysing Lamb waves in FGPM plate. The obtained numerical results can be used to design different sensors with high performance working at different frequency ranges by adjusting the extent of the gradient property.