Development of finite element techniques for three-dimensional analyses of thermo-piezoelectric materials

The development and application of smart structures and smart composite materials require efficient numerical tools to analyze the thermo-piezoelectric behavior and stress state. In this paper finite element (FE) techniques are suggested for three-dimensional coupled thermo-electro-mechanical analyses. The actual thermo-piezoelectric responses of smart structures subjected to thermal loadings can be determined by adopting a procedure TPESAR The detailed implementation is presented with emphasis on the integration with software ABAQUS. A benchmark problem is discussed afterwards.