Closed-form expressions for higher order electroelastic tetrahedral elements

Abstract

A finite element formulation for three-dimensional modeling of dynamic and static responses of structures with piezoelectric components and the development of highly efficient closed-form expressions for element electroelastic stiffness matrices for straight-sided linear strain tetrahedral and quadratic strain tetrahedral elements are presented. Included is a discussion of procedures for combining tetrahedra to produce hexahedral elements. Two simple numerical examples are presented to illustrate the formulation.