Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2018) 133: 141
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-11976-1

Regular Article

Flexoelectric effect in functionally graded materials: A numerical study

School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, 175 001, Himachal Pradesh, India

^* e-mail: rahul@iitmandi.ac.in

Received: 28 December 2017
Accepted: 9 March 2018
Published online: 11 April 2018

Abstract

The flexoelectric effect has been observed in a wide range of dielectric materials. However, the flexoelectric effect can only be induced using the strain gradient. Researchers have examined the flexoelectricity using non-uniform loading (cantilever type) or non-uniform shape in dielectric materials, which may be undesirable in many applications. In the present article, we demonstrate induced flexoelectricity in dielectric functionally graded materials (FGMs) due to non-uniform Youngs’s modulus along the thickness. To examine flexoelectricity, Ba_0.6Sr_0.4TiO₃ (BST) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were used to numerically simulate the performance of FGMs. 2D simulation suggests that output voltage can drastically enhance for optimum grading index of FGMs.