Numerical MLPG Analysis of Piezoelectric Sensor in Structures

The paper deals with a numerical analysis of the electro-mechanical response of piezoelectric sensors subjected to an external non-uniform displacement field. The meshless method based on the local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach is utilized for the numerical solution of a boundary value problem for the coupled electro-mechanical fields that characterize the piezoelectric material. The sensor is modeled as a 3-D piezoelectric solid. The transient effects are not considered. Using the present MLPG approach, the assumed solid of the cylindrical shape is discretized with nodal points only, and a small spherical subdomain is introduced around each nodal point. Local integral equations constructed from the weak form of governing PDEs are defined over these local subdomains. A moving least-squares (MLS) approximation scheme is used to approximate the spatial variations of the unknown field variables, and the Heaviside unit step function is used as a test function. The electric field induced on the sensor is studied in a numerical example for two loading scenarios.