A theoretical study of the propagation of Rayleigh waves in a functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM)

An exact approach is used to investigate Rayleigh waves in a functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) layer bonded to a semi infinite homogenous solid. The piezoelectric material is polarized when the six fold symmetry axis is put along the propagation direction x(1). The FGPM character imposes that the material properties change gradually with the thickness of the layer. Contrary to the analytical approach, the adopted numerical methods, including the ordinary differential equation (ODE) and the stiffness matrix method (SMM), treat separately the electrical and mechanical gradients. The influences of graded variations applied to FGPM film coefficients on the dispersion curves of Rayleigh waves are discussed. The effects of gradient coefficients on electromechanical coupling factor, displacement fields, stress distributions and electrical potential, are reported. The obtained deviations in comparison with the ungraded homogenous film are plotted with respect to the dimensionless wavenumber. Opposite effects are observed on the coupling factor when graded variations are applied separately. A particular attention has been devoted to the maximum of the coupling factor and it dependence on the stratification rate and the gradient coefficient. This work provides with a theoretical foundation for the design and practical applications of SAW devices with high performance.