Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

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Ultrasonics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ultras

Effect of initial stress on Love waves in a piezoelectric structure carrying

a functionally graded material layer
Zheng-Hua Qian a,*, Feng Jin b, Tianjian Lu b, Kikuo Kishimoto c, Sohichi Hirose a
a

Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
MOE Key Laboratory of Strength and Vibration, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, PR China
c
Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 1520-8552, Japan
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 19 November 2008
Received in revised form 10 August 2009
Accepted 19 August 2009
Available online 23 August 2009
Keywords:
Piezoelectric structure
FGM layer
Initial stress
SAW devices
Love waves

a b s t r a c t
The effect of initial stress on the propagation behavior of Love waves in a piezoelectric half-space of
polarized ceramics carrying a functionally graded material (FGM) layer is analytically investigated in this
paper from the three-dimensional equations of linear piezoelectricity. The analytical solutions are
obtained for the dispersion relations of Love wave propagating in this kind of structure with initial stress
for both electrical open case and electrical short case, respectively. One numerical example is given to
graphically illustrate the effect of initial stress on dispersive curve, phase velocity and electromechanical
coupling factor of the Love wave propagation. The results reported here are meaningful for the design of
surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with high performance.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Love wave sensors and surface acoustic wave devices are highly
sensitive micro-acoustic devices due to the acoustic energy concentration within a few wavelengths near the surface. Such kind
of device is particularly useful in the business and telecommunication elds [1]. Usually, this kind of device is a layered structure
where a thin layer is deposited on a substrate. The properties of
the layer have a great inuence on the performance of surface
acoustic wave devices. The simplest one is a layered isotropic elastic structure. The more efcient one is a layered piezoelectric structure, i.e. an elastic substrate with a piezoelectric layer or a
piezoelectric substrate with an elastic layer. Many works have
been done on the wave propagation in the two layered structures.
Curtis and Redwood [2] analyzed the transverse surface waves on a
piezoelectric material carrying a metal layer of nite thickness.
Yang [3] investigated the propagation of Love waves on a piezoelectric half-space of polarized ceramic carrying an elastic layer
from the three-dimensional equations of linear piezoelectromagnetism with full electromagnetic coupling. Then Yang and Zhou
[4,5] studied the propagation of anti-plane surface waves in a piezoelectric ceramic half-space carrying a thin layer of a semi-conducting material and the wave propagation in a piezoelectric
ceramic half-space with a thin semiconductor lm and an air gap
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 3 5734 2692.
E-mail addresses: qian.z.aa@m.titech.ac.jp, zhenghua_qian@hotmail.com (Z.-H.
Qian).
0041-624X/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2009.08.011

between the lm and the half-space. Liu et al. [6], Jin et al. [7], Qian
et al. [8] studied the effect of initial stress on the propagation
behavior of Love waves in an elastic substrate with a piezoelectric
layer and a piezoelectric substrate with an elastic layer, respectively. Danoyan and Piliposian [9] considered the existence and
behavior of electro-elastic surface Love waves in a structure consisting of a piezoelectric substrate of crystal classes 6, 4, 6mm,
4mm, 622 or 422, an elastic layer and a dielectric medium. Recently, Danoyan and Piliposian [10] studied the existence and
behavior of surface electro-elastic horizontal waves in the similar
layered structure when the shear bulk wave velocity in the elastic
layer is greater than or equal to that in the substrate.
Functionally graded materials have been known to have good
performances in many applications. Many works have been done
on the research like thermomechanical response and fracture
behavior of functionally graded materials since its appearance
[11]. For functionally graded materials, it is very important to
study wave propagation problems due to their working conditions,
which can be found in the foregoing work [1216].
However, for the FGM layered piezoelectric structure, which
consists of an FGM layer and a piezoelectric substrate, due to the
non-uniform material properties, coefcients of thermal expansion
and chemical/nucleation shrinkage/growth during the processing
and cool down to operating or room temperature, the presence
of initial stress is unavoidable. On the other hand, to prevent the
piezoelectric material from brittle fracture, the layered piezoelectric structure is usually pre-stressed during the manufacture process. The initial stress in the layered structures can lead to

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Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

delamination, microcracking, debonding and degradation of the

layer, it also can lead to the dramatically change of dispersion relation corresponding to the wave propagation in above-mentioned
structures. And the literatures on the response of such advanced
materials with initial stress to dynamic and impact loadings are
still limited. So it is necessary to investigate the inuence of initial
stress on the existence and propagation behavior of transverse surface waves in such layered structure.
In this paper, we have taken into account the effect of initial
stress on the propagation behavior of Love waves in a piezoelectric
half-space carrying an FGM layer and discussed the effects of initial
stress on dispersive curves, phase velocities and electromechanical
coupling factor of Love wave propagation. The manuscript is arranged as follows: Section 2 is the statement of the problem, the
detailed solution process is listed in Sections 3 and 4, and one
numerical example is given in Section 5, nally the conclusions
come into Section 6. Results obtained in this paper can provide a
theoretical foundation for the design and practical application of
surface acoustic wave devices with high performance.
2. Statement of the problem

ut0
w wx; y; t

9
>
=

>

u ux; y; t ;

For the FGM layer in the region h < x < 0, let w1 and u1 denote
the mechanical displacement and the electric potential function,
assuming that the shear modulus and the mass density are gradient, i.e.

lx l0 f x; qx q0 gx

where l0 = l(0) and q0 = q(0) and the dielectric constant e = constant, then considering Eqs. (1)(4), we have [14]
1
f 0 @w
f
@x

Here, the wave propagation behavior in an FGM layered piezoelectric structure is taken into account, as shown in Fig. 1. It involves an FGM layer with uniform thickness of h bonded
perfectly to a transversely isotropic piezoelectric substrate with
its polarization direction perpendicular to the x  y plane. It is assumed that there exist constant initial stresses in the layered structure, and the upper surface of the layer is mechanical traction free.
Usually, for SAW devices, the thickness of the substrate is much
greater than that of the layer, such that the structure can be treated
as a layered half-space problem, and the initial stress in the substrate is negligible.
For the wave motion of small amplitude, the eld equations of
linear piezoelectricity with initial stresses consist of the equations
of motion and Maxwells equations [8]

rij;j ui;k r0kj ;j qui

convention for repeated tensor indices is used, and the comma followed by an index denotes partial differentiation with respect to
the coordinate associated with the index.
It is assumed that the wave propagation is in the positive direction of y-axis without loss of generality. And there exists only one
constant initial stress component r0 in the layer, such that the
mechanical displacement components and the scalar electric potential function u are as follows:

@ 2 u1
@x2

@ 2 w1
@x2


 2
rl0 f @@yw21 cg2
0

@ 2 w1
@t 2

9
=

@@yu21 0

and the non-vanishing components of rij and Di are

1
@w1
1 =
r1
ryz
l0 f @w
zx l0 f @x ;
@y
@ u1
@ u1 ;
D1
D1
x e @x ;
y e @y

where c0 = (l0/q0)1/2 is the shear wave velocity at the interface x = 0.

For the transversely isotropic piezoelectric substrate in the region x > 0, let w2, u2 denote the mechanical displacement and the
electric potential function, also considering Eqs. (1)(4), we have
the following eld equations [8]

2
c44 r2 w2 e15 r2 u2 q2 w

)
8

e15 r2 w2  e11 r2 u2 0
1

Di;i 0

as well as the following constitutive relations:

rij cijkl skl  ekij Ek ; Di eijk sjk eij Ej

with

sij ui;j uj;i =2

In Eqs. (1)(3), ui is the mechanical displacement vector, rij the

stress tensor, r0kj is the initial stress tensor, sij the strain tensor, Ei
the electric eld vector, Di the electric displacement vector. The
coefcients cijkl, ekij and eij are the elastic, piezoelectric and dielectric
constants, q the mass density. The indices i, j, k assume 1, 2, 3. A
superimposed dot represents time differentiation, the summation

Air

FGM layer

and the non-vanishing components of rij and Di are

2
@ u2
@ u2 =
@w2
@w2
r2
zx c44 @x e15 @x ; ryz c 44 @y e15 @y
@
u
u2 ;
2
2
2
2
Dx e15 @w
 e11 @x2 ; Dy e15 @w
 e11 @@y
@x
@y

where c44 and e15 are the shear modulus and the piezoelectric constant in the substrate, q2 the mass density.
The upper surface of the layer is in the air, and the dielectric
constant e0 of air is much smaller than that of the layer, so the
air can be treated as vacuum. Such that the electric potential function u0 for the air (x < h) satises Laplaces equation, i.e.

r2 u0 0

10

Moreover, when the Love wave propagates in the layered structure, as shown in Fig. 1, the following boundary and continuous
conditions should be satised. It should be pointed out that two
kinds of electrical boundary conditions, i.e. electrical open and
short conditions, would be taken into account in this study.

y
(1) The mechanical traction-free condition at x = h,

Piezoelectric substrate

s1
zx h; y 0:
x
(2) The electrical boundary conditions at x = h,

u0 h; y u1 h; y
Fig. 1. A piezoelectric half-space with an FGM layer.

1
D0
x h; y Dx h; y

)
electrically open case

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Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

w2 x; y; t A5 ekbx expiky  ct

u1 h; y 0 electrically short case

u2 x; y; t A6 ekx ee1115 A5 ekbx expiky  ct

9
w1 0; y w2 0; y >
>
>
=
u 0; y u 0; y >
1

2
s1
>
zx 0; y szx 0; y >
>
2
D1
x 0; y Dx 0; y

>
;

kbx
r2
A6 e15 ekx expiky  ct >
>
zx kA5 bC 44 e
>
>
>
2
kbx
kx
ryz ikA5 C 44 e A6 e15 e expiky  ct =
kx
>
expiky  ct
D2
>
x A6 ke11 e
>
>
>
2
;
kx
Dy A6 ike11 e expiky  ct

(4) For x ? +1, w2 ? 0, u2 ? 0. For x ? 1, u0 ? 0.

3. Solutions of the eld equations

For the rst equation in Eq. (6) we assume the following formal
solution

w1 x; y; t f

1=2

nx expiky  ct

11

where
pk (=2p/k) is the wave number with k being the wavelength,
i 1; c is the phase velocity of wave propagation, n (x) is the unknown function. Substitution of Eq. (11) into Eq. (6) yields
2

n00 k q2 n 0

12

q
2
in which q c2 g=c20 f  1  r0 =l0 f  2f 00  f 1 f 0 2 =4k f .
Usually, it is difcult to obtain the exact solution of Eq. (12). But
for high-frequency short waves, i.e. k  1, the WKB solution of Eq.
(12) can be obtained as follows [17]:

A1
nx p eik
q

qdx

A2
p eik
q

qdx

13

where A1, A2 are unknown constants to be determined.

Substituting of Eq. (13) into Eq. (11) yields the solution of
mechanical displacement in the layer


w1 x; y; t A1 Px A2 P x expiky  ct

14

where P(x) = eik qdx/(fq)1/2 and P*(x) is the conjugate complex of

P(x).
The second equation of Eq. (6) can be solved directly, and the
solution of the electric potential function in the layer can be obtained as

u1 x; y; t A3 ekx A4 ekx expiky  ct

15

in which A3, A4 are unknown constants to be determined.

From Eq. (7) the non-vanishing components of the stress tensor
and the electric displacement vector in the layer are readily obtained as follows:

9
>
>
>
R
R
>
p
>
ik qdx
ik qdx
l0 f =qA1 e
A2 e
ik expiky  ct =
>
>
keA3 ekx  A4 ekx expiky  ct
>
>
>
;
kx
kx
ikeA3 e A4 e expiky  ct

Dy1

16

where Q(x) = (f/q)1/2(f0 /fikq)eik qdx and Q*(x) is the conjugate

complex of Q(x).
For the mechanical displacement and the electric potential
function in the substrate, the formal solutions are taken as

w2 x; y; t W 2 x expiky  ct

u2 x; y; t U2 x expiky  ct

u0 A0 ekx expiky  ct

20

and the corresponding electric displacement component,

kx
D0
x A0 e0 ke expiky  ct

)
21

kx
D0
y A0 e0 ike expiky  ct

where A0 is an unknown constant to be determined.

4. Solutions of the phase velocity
4.1. Electrically open case
Substituting Eqs. (14)(16) and (18)(21) into the boundary
conditions (1) and (2) and the continuous conditions (3), we can
obtain the following algebraic equations of the unknown constants
A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6 and A0,

A1 P0 A2 P 0 A5

22a

A3 A4 A6 A5 e15 =e11
l0 A1 Q 0 A2 Q  0 kA5 bC 44 A6 e15

22b
22c

keA3  A4 ke11 A6
l0 A1 Q h A2 Q  h 0

22d

kh

kh

A3 e A4 e

22e

kh

A0 e

22f

keA3 ekh  A4 ekh A0 e0 kekh

22g

in which P(x) and Q(x) are dened as before. For the existence condition of nontrivial solutions the determinant of the coefcient matrix has to vanish, which leads to the following dispersion relation
determining wave speed:

e11 e0 tanhkh e
ImP0Q  hke215 =e11

e e0 e tanhkh Imfl0 Q 0 kbC 44 P0Q  hg

(i) The waves are dispersive.

(ii) When f (x) = g (x) = 1, i.e. the material of the layer is not functionally graded material, then we have
1=4

P0 c2 =c20  1  r0 =l0

;
1=4

17

Substituting of Eq. (17) into Eq. (8) and considering the rst
condition in (4) simultaneously, we obtain [7]

23

where Im denotes the imaginary part.

We make the following observations from Eq. (23):

Q 0 ikc2 =c20  1  r0 =l0

19

From Eq. (10) and noticing the second condition in (4), one can
easily obtain the solution of the electric potential function in
vacuum,

rzx1 l0 A1 Q x A2 Q  x expiky  ct

Dx1

18

where A5, A6 are unknown constants to be determined, and

b 1  c2 =c22 1=2 ; c2 C 44 =q2 1=2 with C 44 c44 e215 =e11 .
From Eq. (9) the non-vanishing components of the stress tensor
and the electric displacement vector in the substrate are readily
obtained as follows:

(3) The continuous conditions at x = 0,

1
ryz

or

Q h ikc

=c20

1=4

 1  r0 =l0

expikhc2 =c20  1  r0 =l0

1=2

:

Substituting the above expressions into Eq. (23) and then

through simple deriving, we obtain the reduction of Eq.
(23) to

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Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490



e11 e0 tanhkh e
1
e e0 e tanhkh
s
s
s!
c 2 l0 c 2
r0
c2
r0
e2

1 2
 1  tan kh 2  1 
15
2
l0
l0
e11 C 44
c2 C 44 c0
c0

(iii) When r0 = 0, i.e. no initial stresses exist in the layer, then Eq.
(30) reduces to


e11
1
tanhkh
s
s!
se
c2
l0 c 2
c2
e2
 1 tan kh 2  1 15

1  2 
2
C 44 c0
e11 C 44
c2
c0

24
which is the dispersion relation for piezoelectric Love waves
in a ceramic half-space carrying a homogeneous isotropic
elastic layer with initial stress for electrically open boundary
condition. This special result appears to be new.
(iii) When r0 = 0, i.e. no initial stresses exist in the layer, then Eq.
(24) reduces to



e11 e0 tanhkh e
1
e e0 e tanhkh
s
s!
s
c2 l0 c2
c2
e2

1 2
 1 tan kh 2  1 15
e11 C 44
c2 C 44 c20
c0

which is the dispersion relation for piezoelectric Love waves

in a ceramic half-space carrying an elastic dielectric layer for
electrically short boundary condition. This special result appears to be the same as Eq. (32) in Yang [3].
(iv) When e15 = 0, i.e. the material of the half-space is not piezoelectric, then Eq. (30) reduces to

s
s
s
c 2 l0 c 2
r0
c2
r0
 1  tan kh 2  1 
1 2
0
l0
l0
c2 c44 c20
c0

25

26

which determines the speed of Love waves in an elastic halfspace carrying an elastic layer with initial stress.
(v) When e15 = 0 and r0 = 0, then Eq. (24) reduces to

s
s
s
c2 l0 c2
c2
 1 tan kh 2  1 0
1 2
c2 c44 c20
c0

27

which determines the speed of Love waves in elasticity.

5. Numerical example
Up to now, analytical solutions of the phase velocity equations
for the FGM layered piezoelectric structure have been obtained to
be a quite simple mathematical form, where the material property
variation of the FGM layer assumes any functions. However, Eq.
(23) and Eq. (29) are obviously transcendental equations, which
lead to the complex of this problem. To study the propagation
behavior of Love waves in this kind of structure and to graphically
show the effects of initial stress on dispersion curves, phase velocity and electromechanical coupling factor of Love wave propagation, we just take the gradient form as [18]

4.2. Electrically short case

f x expcx; gx expcx

For the electrical short case at the free surface, the last two
equations in Eq. (22) should be replaced by the following
expression

then q(x) can be expressed as

A3 ekh A4 ekh 0

28

then a homogeneous linear algebraic equations with respect to A1,

A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 can be obtained. By the similar procedure to
the electrical open case, we can obtain the corresponding dispersion
relation for the electrically short case,

e11
ImP0Q  hke215 =e11
1
tanhkh
e
Imfl0 Q 0 kbC 44 P0Q  hg

29

We make the following observations from Eq. (29):

(i) The waves are dispersive.
(ii) When f (x) = g (x) = 1, i.e. the material of the layer is not functionally graded material, then Eq. (29) reduces to (following
the same manner as in electrically open case)


e11
1
tanhkh
se
s
s!
c2 l0 c2
r0
c2
r0
e2
 1  tan kh 2  1 
15

1 2
2
l0
l0
e11 C 44
c2 C 44 c0
c0

32

which is the same as Eq. (26) because no difference exists between electrically open case and electrically short case when
the piezoelectric constant e15 = 0. Similarly when r0 = 0 and
e15 = 0, then Eq. (30) reduces to the same dispersion relation
as Eq. (27), determining the speed of Love waves in elasticity.

which is the dispersion relation for piezoelectric Love waves

in a ceramic half-space carrying an elastic dielectric layer for
electrically open boundary condition.
(iv) When e15 = 0, i.e. the material of the half-space is not piezoelectric, then Eq. (24) reduces to

s
s
s
c2 l
c2
r0
c2
r0

1

1
1 2 0
tan
kh
0
2
l0
l0
c2 c44 c0
c20

31

33

qx D2  r0 =l0 ecx 1=2

34

q0 q0 D2  r0 =l0 1=2 ;
h
i1=2
q1 qh D2  r0 =l0 ech

35

q
2
in which D c=c0 2  1  c2 =4k . And we have the following

So P(x) and Q(x) can be obtained by integration of q(x) as follows:



ecx=2
i2k 
q
Px p exp
q  Darctanh
D
c
q




ecx=2
1
i2k 
q
Qx p  c  ikq exp
q  Darctanh
2
D
c
q

36a
36b

Substituting the above two expressions into Eq. (23) and Eq. (29)
yields
2

e
c
q1  2k
tan M e1115C 44
e11 tanh kh ee0



1
e
e 1 e0 tanh kh q1 b cq0 q1 l0 q0 q1 l0  cb c22l0 tan M
2k
2kC 44
C 44
4k C
44

37
for the electrical open case, and

30
which is the dispersion relation for piezoelectric Love waves
in a ceramic half-space carrying a homogeneous isotropic
elastic layer for the electrically short boundary condition.

e2

q1  2k tan M e1115C44
e11


38
tanh kh
q0 q1 l0
c2 l0
cb
e
0 q1 l0
tan
M
q1 b cq2kC

2
2k
C
44
44
4k C
44

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Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

for
the electrical short case,
respectively, where M 2k
c q0  q1

D arctanh qD0  arctanh qD1 .
The corresponding material parameters used in the calculation,
which are taken from (Liu and Wang [16], Qian et al. [8]), are listed
in Table 1.
5.1. Effect of the initial stress on dispersion relations
Firstly, we consider the effect of initial stress on the dispersion
relations for the electrical boundary condition of electrically open.
For the given material system and initial stress, there are only two
variables, i.e. phase velocity c and wave number k in Eq. (37). The
dispersion relations due to initial tensile stress and initial compression stress are shown in Fig. 2a and b, compared with the dispersive relations without initial stress.
It can be seen that the effects of the initial stress on the dispersion relations are different for the tensile stress case and the compression stress case. The dispersive curves due to tensile stresses
shift to the right side of the dispersive curves with zero stress,
while the dispersive curves due to compression stresses shift to
the left side of the dispersive curves without initial stress. And
the shift of dispersion curves is more sensitive for tensile stress
than for compression stress.
It also can be seen that the initial stress has no inuence on the
cut-off frequency of the fundamental mode for both the tensile
stress case and the compression stress case. However, for high order modes both the initial tensile stress and the initial compression
stress have obvious inuence on the cut-off frequencies. Furthermore, the cut-off frequencies for high order modes increase with
the increase in the tensile stress and decrease with the increase
in the magnitude of compression stress. And the higher the mode
is the more obvious the inuence is. For the electrical boundary
condition of electrically short, the effect of initial stress on the dispersion curves is similar to that for electrically open case, which is
omitted here for brevity, so only the electrically open case is taken
into account in the following discussion.
5.2. Effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity
The phase velocity c can be calculated from Eq. (37) for different
values of m (Here, m is the ratio of the layer thickness h to the
wavelength k). The effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity
c for the fundamental mode of Love waves is shown in Fig. 3a and b
for tensile stress case and compression stress case, respectively.
It is seen that the effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity
is negligible as |r0| < 108 Pa, but the phase velocity increases with
the increase in the initial tensile stress while decreases with the increase in the absolute magnitude of the initial compression stress
as |r0| > 108 Pa. It means that we can change the phase velocity of
Love wave propagation in the structure as shown in Fig. 1 by
adjusting the initial stress state during the processing of the functionally graded material layer.
It is readily seen from Fig. 3a and b that the values of the ratios
of the layer thickness h to the wavelength k have a remarkable
inuence on the phase velocity c. And in one same mode, the bigger the value of the ratio m is the more obvious the change due to
the initial stress is, which means that the waves of low speed are
more sensitive to the initial stress than the ones of high speed.

Fig. 2. Dispersive relations for initial stresses compared with the one without initial
stress: (a) tensile stress case and (b) compression stress case.

5.3. Effect of the initial stress on the electromechanical coupling factor

The electromechanical coupling factor K2 dened as

K2 2

copen  cshort
copen

39

is an important material parameter for the design of surface acoustic wave devices and sensors and is directly related to the performance of surface acoustic wave devices and sensors [19]. Effects
of the initial stress on the electromechanical coupling factor K2 for
the fundamental mode of Love waves are shown in Fig. 4a and b
for different values of m, respectively.
It is seen that the effect of both the initial tensile stress and the
initial compression stress on the electromechanical coupling factor
K2 can be negligible as m > 0.5. The values of the electro- mechanical coupling factor as m > 0.5 can be found very small. However,
the electromechanical coupling factor K2 decreases obviously with
the increase in the initial tensile stress but increases with the

Table 1
Material constants.
Materials

c44 (1010 N/m2)

q (103 kg/m3)

e15 (c/m2)

e11 (1010 F/m)

Functionally graded material layer

Piezoelectric substrate

3.05  exp(cx)
4.40

7.50  exp(cx)
7.28

11.4

0.45
128.0

Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

Fig. 3. Variations of the phase velocity c vs. initial stress r0 for different values of m:
(a) tensile stress case and (b) compression stress case.

increase in the magnitude of the initial compression stress as

m < 0.5. And the smaller the value of the ratio m is the more obvious the change due to the initial stress is. The phenomenon demonstrates that the waves of high speed are more sensitive to the
initial stress than the ones of low speed, which is exactly the opposite to that of the effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity
obtained in the previous subsection.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, we have taken into account the effect of initial
stresses on the propagation behavior of Love waves in a transversely isotropic piezoelectric half-space carrying a functionally
graded material layer. Dispersion equations, which can reduce to
a few known elastic and quasi-static piezoelectric wave solutions
in the literature as special cases, are obtained analytically from
the three-dimensional equations of linear piezoelectricity. One
numerical example is given to illustrate the detailed effect of initial
stresses on the propagation behavior of Love waves in the structure
shown in Fig. 1, which results in the following points:
(1) Both initial tensile stress and initial compression stress
make the obvious shift to the dispersion curves without initial stress as |r0| > 108 Pa, and have no effect on the cut-off

89

Fig. 4. Variations of the electromechanical coupling factor K2 vs. initial stress r0 for
different values of m: (a) tensile stress case and (b) compression stress case.

frequency of the fundamental mode of the wave propagation. However, the cut-off frequencies for high order modes
increase with the increase in the tensile stress and decrease
with the increase in the magnitude of compression stress.
And the higher the mode is the more obvious the inuence
is.
(2) The effect of the initial stress on the phase velocity is negligible as |r0| < 108 Pa, but the phase velocity increases with
the increase in the initial tensile stress while decreases with
the increase in the absolute magnitude of the initial compression stress as |r0| > 108 Pa. And the ratio m of the layer
thickness h to the wavelength k has a remarkable inuence
on the phase velocity.
(3) The effect of both the initial tensile stress and the initial
compression stress on the electromechanical coupling factor
K2 can be negligible as m > 0.5. However, the electromechanical coupling factor K2 decreases obviously with the increase
in the initial tensile stress but increases with the increase in
the magnitude of the initial compression stress as m < 0.5.
And the smaller the value of the ratio m is the more obvious
the change due to the initial stress is.
These results can provide theoretical foundation for the design
and practical application of surface acoustic wave devices and

90

Z.-H. Qian et al. / Ultrasonics 50 (2010) 8490

sensors. And many experimental investigations are needed to conrm the corresponding theoretical results, which will be considered in the future.

Acknowledgements
The author (Z.H. Qian) gratefully acknowledges the support by
Global COE Program at Tokyo Institute of Technology. The work
was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Nos. 10972171, 10632060), the Program for New Century
Excellent Talents in Universities (No. NCET-08-0429) and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20070698064).

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