Computational homogenization of higher-order electro-mechanical materials with built-in generalized periodicity conditions

Abstract: We present a formulation for high-order generalized periodicity conditions in the context of a high-order electromechanical theory including flexoelectricity, strain gradient elasticity and gradient dielectricity, with the goal of studying periodic architected metamaterials. Such theory results in fourth-order governing partial differential equations, and the periodicity conditions involve continuity across the periodic boundary of primal fields (displacement and electric potential) and their normal derivatives, continuity of the corresponding dual generalized forces (tractions, double tractions, surface charge density and double surface charge density). Rather than imposing these conditions numerically as explicit constraints, we develop an approximation space which fulfils generalized periodicity by construction. Our method naturally allows us to impose general macroscopic fields (strains/stresses and electric fields/electric displacements) along arbitrary directions, enabling the characterization of the material anisotropy. We apply the proposed method to study periodic architected metamaterials with apparent piezoelectricity. We first verify the method by directly comparing the results with a large periodic structure, then apply it to evaluate the anisotropic apparently piezoelectricity of a geometrically polarized 2D lattice, and finally demonstrate the application of the method in a 3D architected metamaterial.