Free Vibration Analysis of Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Material Beam by a Modified Mesh Free Method

Abstract

A mesh-free method based on moving least squares approximation (MLS) and weak form of governing equations including two dimensional equations of motion and Maxwell’s equation is used to analyze the free vibration of functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) beams. Material properties in beam are determined using a power law distribution. Essential boundary conditions are imposed by the transformation method. The mesh-free method is verified by comparison with a finite element method (FEM) which performed for FGPM beams. Comparisons showed that this model has a good accuracy. After validation of the presented model, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the effect of mechanical and electrical boundary conditions, slenderness ratio and distribution of constituent materials on natural frequencies of FGPM beams. It is concluded that slenderness ratio has more significant effect on lower frequencies. On the other hand higher frequencies are affected by the volume fraction power index much more than lower frequencies.