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The Peano-series expansion is used to investigate the propagation of the lowest-order symmetric ( S 0 ) and antisymmetric ( A 0 ) Lamb wave modes in a functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) plate. Aluminum nitride has been retained for illustration, it is polarized along the thickness axis, and at the same time the material properties change gradually perpendicularly to the plate with an exponential variation. The effects of the gradient variation on the phase velocity and the coupling electromechanical factor are obtained. Appropriate curves are given to reflect their behavior with respect to frequency. The highest value of the electromechanical coupling factor has been observed for S 0 mode, it is close to six percent, conversely for A 0 mode it does not exceed 1.5%. The coupling factor maxima undergo a shift toward the high frequency area when the corresponding gradient coefficient increases. The Peano-series method computed under Matlab software, gives rapid convergence and accurate phase velocity when analysing Lamb waves in FGPM plate. The obtained numerical results can be used to design different sensors with high performance working at different frequency ranges by adjusting the extent of the gradient property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]