IOP PUBLISHING

SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007 (8pp)

doi:10.1088/0964-1726/18/11/115007

Thermoelastic analysis of a thick walled

cylinder made of functionally graded
piezoelectric material
M J Khoshgoftar1, A Ghorbanpour Arani2 and M Arefi1
1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-143, Iran

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kashan, Ghotb Ravandi Avenue,
Kashan 87317-51167, Iran
2

E-mail: mj.khoshgoftar@gmail.com

Received 2 May 2009, in final form 1 August 2009

Published 11 September 2009
Online at stacks.iop.org/SMS/18/115007
Abstract
In this paper, the thermopiezoelectric behavior of a thick walled cylinder with functionally
graded materials is studied. The cylinder is loaded under the temperature gradient and inner and
outer pressures. All the mechanical, thermal and piezoelectric properties except the Poisson
ratio can be expressed as a power function in the radial direction. In the first step, with the
solution of the heat transfer equation, a symmetric distribution of temperature is obtained. The
stresses and electric displacement relations can be derived in terms of the temperature, electric
field and strain. Substituting the resultant relations into the mechanical and electrical
equilibrium equations yields the system of nonhomogeneous differential equations with two
unknown variables (the mechanical displacement and the electrical potential). Solving the
system of nonhomogeneous differential equations yields other mechanical and thermal terms
such as the stress, displacement, electric field and electric displacement. The main result of the
present study is that, by applying a proper distribution of mechanical and thermal properties in
the functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) solid structures, the distributions of
stresses, electric potential and electric field in the FGPM can be controlled. Hence, the FGPM
can be used in sensors or actuators.

Nomenclature
C
D
e
k
p
r
Er
T
u

materials (FGMs), have appeared in industrial applications.

The first idea for producing this group of materials was
their application in the high temperature gradient environment
and their forming ability. For structures that are applicable
in environments such as nuclear reactors and chemical
laboratories, it is inevitable to use FGMs. FGMs are made
of a mixture with arbitrary composition of two different
materials, and the volume fraction of each material changes
continuously and gradually in the entire volume of the material.
Ceramics and metal are examples of these different materials.
Ceramics bear the high gradient temperature and keep the first
configuration. If we use the pure metal in those environments,
for the effect of high temperature, creep and large deformation
in structure were inevitable.
Ceramics have a high resistance to forming in a
temperature field but, on the other hand, metals have a ductility
property that reduces the fragility of ceramics.
As mentioned above, compounding ceramics and metal
can be used to create the best properties for bearing the entire
extreme environment.

Elastic stiffness
Electric displacement
Piezoelectric coefficient
Heat conductivity coefficient
Pyroelectric coefficient
Radius
Electric field
Temperature
Displacement
Heat expansion coefficient
Electric potential
Dielectric coefficient
Stress
Strain

1. Introduction
With advances in the techniques of material production, new
groups of materials, which are called functionally graded
0964-1726/09/115007+08$30.00

2009 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

When a piezoelectric material is loaded with stress, as

the effect of polarization of the material, electricity can be
produced. Within the piezoelectric materials, symmetric
piezoelectric materials are very applicable. To improve the
structure of piezoelectric material and the application of
these materials in various environments, functionally graded
piezoelectric material (FGPM) has been created. Mechanical
and thermal properties of FGPM are similar to FGM, varying
continuously in terms of the spatial coordinate system.
The problem of a piezoceramic hollow sphere was
investigated analytically based on the 3D equations of
piezoelasticity by Chen in 2002 [1]. The analytical solution
for a piezoelectric cantilever beam with continuously graded
properties using of the Airy stress function method was
presented in 2004 [2].
Exact three-dimensional solutions for a rectangular
laminate with piezoelectric layers of exponentially graded
material properties along the thickness, and being simply
supported along two opposite edges, were derived by Lu in
2005 [3]. Electromagnetoelastic behaviors of functionally
graded piezoelectric in geometry, i.e. solid cylinders and
spheres, were researched by Dai in 2007 [4]. They showed
proper mechanical and electric loads on the FGPM solid
structures can control the distributions of stresses, electric
potential and perturbation of magnetic field vector in the
FGPM solid structures. Exact solution of a cylindrical shell
made of functionally graded piezoelectric materials under
cylindrical bending was carried out by Chih in 2007 [5].
Transient piezothermoelastic analysis for a hollow sphere
made of functionally graded piezoelectric material was studied
by Ootao in 2007 [6]. The analytical solution of a functionally
graded piezothermoelastic hollow cylinder was presented
by Chen and Shi in 2005. They assumed that only the
piezoelectric coefficient was varying quadratically in the radial
direction while the other material parameters are assumed
to be constants [7]. They neglected other nonhomogeneous
parameters such as thermal conduction coefficient and modulus
of elasticity. Because of this incompleteness, the effect of
the entire nonhomogeneous coefficient on the behavior of an
FGPM cylinder is studied in the present paper.
In the above paper, only one property was assumed to be
variable. In the present paper, we regard other properties, such
as thermal and mechanical, to be variable.
For this reason, the exact solution for a thermopiezoelectric thick walled cylinder made of functionally graded material
is presented in the present paper. It is assumed that the cylinder
has been under mechanical and thermal loads. In the first step,
the heat transfer equation in the cylindrical coordinate system
under inner and outer boundary conditions is solved. Having
a known distribution of temperature, we can proceed with the
solution procedure.
The present paper is concerned with the one-dimensional
piezothermoelasticity involving a functionally graded thermopiezoelectric thick walled cylinder whose thermal, thermoelastic and piezoelectric properties are assumed to vary according to the power function in a radial coordinate system.

2. Solution of the heat conduction equation

In this section, the symmetric, steady-state, heat transfer
equation in the cylindrical coordinate system is solved with the
assumed boundary conditions.
The symmetric, steady-state heat transfer equation in
the cylindrical coordinate system can be represented as
follows [1, 9]:
1
(r kT (r )T  (r )) = 0
r

ar b

(1)

where a and b are the inner and the outer radii, respectively.
kT (r ) is the thermal conductivity which is assumed to be a
function of the radius (r ). General boundary conditions for
equation (1) are [8]

C11 T (a) + C12 T  (a) = f1

C21 T (b) + C22 T  (b) = f2 .

(2)
In equations (2), Ci j (i = 1, 2; j = 1, 2) are constants which
depend on the thermal conductivity and the thermal convection.
f 1 and f 2 are constants which are evaluated at the inner and
outer radii, respectively.
Assuming kT (r ) as a function of r (equation (3)):
kT (r ) = k0r k .

(3)

The general solution of the distribution of temperature is

obtained as

T (r ) =

A1 k
r + A2
k

k = 0

(4)

where A1 and A2 are constants of integration which are given

by

 
rak
(k+1)
A1 = [C21 f 1 C11 f 2 ] C21 C12ra
C11
k

k 1
r
C11 C22rb(k+1) C21 b
k

k 
r
f2
A2 = C12ra(k+1) C11 a
k
(5)


rbk
(k+1)
f 1 C22rb
C21
k
 

r k
C21 C12ra(k+1) C11 a
k

k 1
r
C11 C22rb(k+1) C21 b
.
k

3. Piezothermoelastic problem
In this section, the general equation of a thick walled
cylinder with nonhomogeneous properties is presented. In the
general case, the stress includes the thermal, mechanical and
piezoelectric terms and can be obtained from equations (6):

rr = Crr rr + Cr err Er r T
= Cr rr + C er Er T.
2

(6)

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

r is zero due to symmetry. In equations (6), i j and

i j (i, j = r, ) are the stress and strain tensors, T (r ) is the
temperature distribution and E(r ) is the electric field. Ci j (i =
r, ; j = r, ) is the elastic stiffness and ei j (i, j = r, ) is the
piezoelectric coefficient. can be obtained from
r = Crr r + Cr

= Cr r + C

Finally, substituting equations (14) into the equilibrium and

Maxwells equations yields the following nonhomogeneous
ordinary differential equations:

2u
u
+ [Crr 0 (l + 1)]r
+ [Cr 0l C 0 ]u
2
r
r
2

+ [err 0 ]r 2 2 + [err 0 (l + 1) er 0 ]r
r
r
 


1
1
A1 r 0 1 (b + l + 1) + 0 r bk+1
k
k

[Crr 0 ]r 2

(7)

where i (i = r, ) is the coefficient of thermal expansion.

As mentioned previously, the cylinder is symmetric.
Therefore, the circumferential displacement must be zero and
the radial and circumferential strain can be written as [10, 11]

+ A2 [r 0 (b + l + 1) + 0 ]r b+1 = 0
2u
u
+ [er 0l]u
[err 0 ]r 2 2 + [err 0 (l + 1) + er 0 ]r
r
r
2

[0 ]r 2 2 [0 (l + 1)]r
r

 r
1
+ p0 A1 (b + l + 1) 1 r bk+1
k

u
u
= .
rr =
(8)
r
r
The electrical field can be obtained by calculating the
divergence of the electrical potential with a minus sign.
Therefore the relation between electrical field and electrical
potential is

Er = .
(9)
r
The electrical displacement, which includes the strain, the
electrical field and the temperature can be written as
Dr = err rr + er + Er pT.

p0 A2 [b + l + 1]r b+1 = 0.

The solution of equations (15) is assumed to be in the following

form:
u = uc + u p
(16a )

= c + p

= 0r

= 0 r

b+l

= 0r l
p = p0 r

b+l

[Crr 0 D 2 + Crr 0 l D + Cr 0l C 0 ]u
+ [err 0 D 2 + (err 0l er 0 ) D] = 0

(17a )

[err 0 D 2 + (err 0l + er 0 )D + ler 0 ]u

+ [0 D 2 0l D] = 0

(17b )

where D is defined as the derivative with respect to s : (D =

d
).
ds
Eliminating from equations (16a ) and (16b ) yields

(4 + 2l3 + (l 2 + )2 + l )u = 0

(13)

(18)

where is defined as

where l and b are the nonhomogeneous parameters of the

material properties.
Substituting the above properties into the two components
of the stress and the electrical displacement yields

u
u

+ Cr 0r l + err 0r l
r 0r b+l T
r
r
r
u
u

+ C 0r l + er 0r l
0r b+l T
= Cr 0r l
r
r
r
u
u

Dr = err 0r l
+ er 0r l 0r l
p0r b+l T.
r
r
r

(16b )

where the first term on the right-hand side of the equations is

the homogeneous solution and the second term is the particular
solution.
In this step, we have to solve the system of two
nonhomogeneous, uncoupled, CauchyEuler equations. In
the first step, the homogeneous solution is obtained using the
change of variable r = es :

Dr
(r Dr )
Dr
=0
+
= 0.
(12)
div(D) =
r r
r
r
Equations (11) and (12) are adequate for obtaining the
unknown function u , . Before substituting the component
of the electrical field in Maxwells equation, appropriate
functions for all properties are assumed as
eri = eri 0 r l

(15b )

4. Solution procedure

(10)

The circumferential component of the electrical displacement,

D , is zero because of the symmetrical condition. In
equation (10), is the dielectric constant and p is the
pyroelectric constant. In this stage, the equilibrium relation for
the components of stress is applied [10, 11]. By substitution
of the components of stress in the equilibrium equation, the
following nonhomogeneous ordinary differential equation is
obtained:
rr
rr
+
= 0.
(11)
r
r
To obtain the solution for u and another equation is
needed. The electrical displacement must satisfy Maxwells
equation which requires that the divergence of the electrical
displacement vanishes at any point within the media:

Ci j = Ci j 0r l

(15a )

2
(0 Cr 0 err 0 er 0 )l + C 0 0 + er
0
.
2
0 Crr 0 err 0

(19)

In general, u is not zero. Therefore, the coefficient of u in

equation (18) must be zero:

rr = Crr 0 r l

( + l)(2 + l + ) = 0.

(14)

(20)

Equation (20) is known as the characteristic equation. The

characteristic equation is of fourth order and therefore, in
3

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

general, has four roots. The roots of the characteristic equation

in terms of  = l 2 4 are written next. For   0:

l + 
1 = 0
2 = l
3 =
2
(21)

l 
4 =
.
2

Table 1. Nonhomogeneous parameters.

Material 1

Material 2

For  < 0, they are written as

1 = 0

2 = l

3 = a + ib

(22)

4 = a ib

Material 3

and b = 
.
where a = l
2
2
In this section, we recognize the different states of the
roots obtained as mentioned above.
4.1. Real roots = 0 for  > 0

Mi =

i= j

2
1
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
2
1
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
0

k
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
2
1
0.01
1
2

(23)

Crr 0 2i

+ Crr 0li + Cr 0l C 0
.
err 0 2i + (err 0l er 0 )i

5. Numerical results

u ci (i = 1, . . . , 4) are constants which can be obtained by

imposing the boundary conditions.

In this paper, cadmium selenide is selected as the material that

can be represented as an FGPM [6]. The properties of cadmium
selenide are given as

4.2. Real roots, = 0, l = 0

uc = 0

c = 1 .

(24)

r 0 = 2.458 106 K1
Crr 0 = 83.6 Gpa

4.3. Real roots, 1 = 2 = 0, l = 0

u c = u c1

X i (i = 1, . . . , 4) can be obtained by substituting

equations (28) into equations (15a ) and (15b ).
Solving equations (15a ) and (15b ) together with the
appropriate boundary conditions yields the distribution of
stress, strain, electric field and electric displacement.

In this case, homogeneous solutions for u and can be written

as
4
4


uc =
u ci r i
c =
Mi u ci r i
i= j

c = c1 + c2 ln r

c 2 =

Cr 0 = 39.3 Gpa

u c1 C 0
.
er 0
(25)

er 0 = 0.16 C m2

(26)

+ u c4r [ cos(b ln r ) + sin(b ln r )].

a

and  are defined as

 = Im(Mi ).

(27)

Re and Im are the real and imaginary parts of the complex

roots, respectively.
The final homogeneous solution of the problem can be
obtained by combining the four cases mentioned above. For
example, for   0 and l = 0, the homogeneous solution can
be obtained by adding cases 1 and 3.
The particular solutions of equations (15a ) and (15b ) can
be written as

u p = X 1r bk+1 + X 2r b+1

err 0 = 0.347 C m2
0 = 9.03 1011 C2 N1 m2

(29)
The nonhomogeneous parameters adopted for the numerical
calculations are shown in table 1. In this table, l is
the nonhomogeneous parameter of the elastic stiffness, the
piezoelectric coefficient and the dielectric constant. b is the
nonhomogeneous parameter of the coefficient of linear thermal
expansion and k is the nonhomogeneous parameter of the
thermal conductivity.
In this section, the nonhomogeneous parameters k , b and
l are determined. For discussion of the effect of nonhomogeneous parameters, three classes of nonhomogeneous parameters are defined in table 1.
For every material, the two nonhomogeneous parameters
are assumed to be constant and the remaining parameter to
vary.
For an isotropic material, the nonhomogeneous parameters are equal to zero. All parameters can be equal to zero
except k . The third rows for each material are devoted to the
properties of the homogeneous material.

u c = r a [u c3 sin(b ln r ) + u c4 cos(b ln r )]

= Re(Mi )

C 0 = 74.1 Gpa

p0 = 2.94 106 C m2 K1 .

4.4. Complex roots (3,4 = a bi )  < 0

c = u c3r a [ cos(b ln r )  sin(b ln r )]

0 = 4.396 106 K1

p = X 3r bk+1 + X 4r b+1 .
(28)
4

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

Figure 1. Distribution of the temperature within the wall of the

cylinder for materials 1 and 2.

Figure 2. Distribution of the temperature within the wall of the

cylinder for material 3.

To present the results, the following dimensionless

parameters are defined:

0 Y0 T0
e
e =
Y0 |d0 |

0 T0

=
Y0 |d0 |2

D r =

Dr
0 Y0 T0 |d0 |

T
T =
T0

ur
0 T0rb
p
p =
0 Y0 |d0 |

r =

=
r
rb

u r =

|d0 |
0 T0rb
=

Er |d0 |
E r =
0 T0
Ci j
C =
.
Y0

(30)
In this section the appropriate electrical and mechanical
boundary conditions are determined. The four boundary
conditions can be written as

rr (r = a) = 0
(r = a) = 0

rr (r = b) = 0
(r = b) = 0.

(31)

Figure 3. Radial displacement along the thickness for various values

of l .

The dimensionless inner and outer radius of the cylinder are

equal to 0.6 and 1, respectively, and the difference between the
inner and the outer temperatures is 50 C.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of temperature within the
wall of the cylinder for materials 1 and 2. As the materials have
the same thermal conductivities, the temperature distribution is
the same for both of them.
Figure 2 shows the distribution of temperature within the
wall of the cylinder for material 3 for five values of k . For
k = 0.01, figure 2 is in agreement with figure 1.
Figure 3 shows the distribution of the radial displacement
within the wall of the cylinder for material 1 for five values
of l . This figure shows that the radial displacement increases
with increasing l . Figure 4 shows the distribution of the electric
potential within the wall of the cylinder for material 1 for five
values of l . Figure 4 shows that the electric potential becomes
zero at three points. The inner and outer radii are two of

them. This is due to imposing boundary conditions for the

electric potential in the inner and outer radii. One surface
in a medium of cylinder thickness exists where the electric
potential becomes zero. This point becomes nearer to the inner
surface with increasing the value of l . This point is the location
of the changing of the sign of the electric potential.
For radii less than the radius for the changing of the sign of
the electric potential, the absolute value of the electric potential
decreases with increasing values of l . In contrast, for radii
greater than the radius for the changing of the sign of the
electric potential, the absolute value of the electric potential
increases with increasing values of l .
Figures 5 and 6 show the distribution of the displacement
and the electric potential within the thickness of the cylinder
for five values of the nonhomogeneous heat expansion
5

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

Figure 4. Distribution of the electric potential along the thickness for

material 1.

Figure 6. Distribution of the electric potential along the thickness for

material 2.

Figure 5. Distribution of the displacement along the thickness for

material 2.

Figure 7. Distribution of the displacement along the thickness for

material 3.

coefficient b . As shown in figure 6, the absolute value of

the displacement increases with decreasing b . The maximum
absolute value of the electric potential occurs in the middle
surface. However, its location moves towards the outer surface
with increasing b .
Figures 7 and 8 show the distribution of the displacement
and the electric potential within the thickness of the cylinder
for four values of the nonhomogeneous heat conductivity k .
k = 0.01 has not been considered in figures 7 and 8, because
of the large difference in amplitude between the other curves
(k = 2, 1, 1, 2) with the mentioned curve (k = 0.01).
As shown in figure 8, the changing of positive or negative
values of k does not has a significant effect on the electric
potential. The magnitude of the electric potential for negative
values of k is greater than the magnitude for positive values
of k . The maximum absolute value of the electric potential is
located in the middle surface.

As a final result, the effect of inner pressure on the

behavior of the cylinder is considered. Figures 9 and 10 show
the distribution of the displacement and the electric potential
for material 1 along the thickness of the cylinder for five
values of the nonhomogeneous elastic stiffness l . As shown
in figures 9 and 10, the electric displacement decreases and
the electric potential increases with increasing l . The location
of the maximum value of the electric potential approaches the
inner surface of the cylinder with increasing l .

6. Conclusions
In the present paper, an exact solution for a thick walled
cylinder made of FGPM under thermal and mechanical
loads was derived using the elasticity theory by assuming
power functions for all mechanical and thermal properties,
6

Smart Mater. Struct. 18 (2009) 115007

M J Khoshgoftar et al

Figure 8. Distribution of the electric potential along the thickness for

material 3.

Figure 10. Distribution of the electric potential along the thickness

for material 1 under pressure.

(3) The absolute value of displacement increases on

decreasing the nonhomogeneous linear thermal expansion
coefficient, b . The maximum absolute value of the
potential electric increases on increasing the absolute
value of b .
(4) The displacement decreases on increasing the positive
value of k . However, it decreases on increasing the
negative value of k .
(5) We present the complete solution of the FGPM cylinder
for cases in which all mechanical and thermal properties,
except the Poisson ratio, are varying functionally. On
changing the presented results in this paper and developing
them, we can design a special FGPM structure. With
use of FGM in piezoelectric equipment, construction
of instruments with different ranges of application and
extensive sensitivity can be done. Sensors and actuators
are examples of such instruments.

Figure 9. Distribution of the displacement along the thickness for

material 1 under pressure.

References

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equation was solved and the distribution of temperature in
the cylinder was obtained. Subsequently, the appropriate
mechanical and electrical equations were derived for solving
the thermopiezoelectric problem. On finding the numerical
value of the solution to the problem, the following conclusions
are obtained.

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(1) By applying the proper mechanical and thermal properties

to the FGPM solid structures, we can control the
distributions of stresses and electric potential and electric
field in the FGPM solid structures.
(2) The radial displacement decreases on decreasing the
nonhomogeneous stiffness elastic coefficient, l , and the
sign of the maximum electric potential changes. The
maximum electric potential changes from positive to
negative value on increasing l from 2 to 2.
7

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M J Khoshgoftar et al

[7] Chen Y and Shi Z-F 2005 Analysis of a functionally graded

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