Abstract
Recently, an existing system of electroelastic equations was extended to account for slow hysteretic effects in polarized ferroelectric ceramic plates by employing an internal variable in a thermodynamic state function. All material irreversibility was taken to be a consequence of the ferroelectric polarization-electric field irreversibility. Since only the slowest possible hysteresis is of concern, the evolution equation is ignored and the known irreversible thickness polarization-electric field saturation curve is taken as the starting curve. Since all experimental data available to us are from strain measurements on a thin wide beam forced by voltages applied to very thin polarized ferroelectric ceramic actuators on the surfaces, the linear strain, plane-stress version of the equations is employed in the description of the actuator. The new irreversible material coefficients for the case of plane-stress are obtained from data on one major hysteresis loop along with the coefficients in the saturation polarization-electric field relations. These now known coefficients are then used to calculate other hysteresis loops, which are shown to agree quite well with measurement.
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