Effects of geometric size and mechanical boundary conditions on magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic composites

A three-dimensional finite element method program is developed to investigate the magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in multiferroic composites. For a bilayer plate, we show that: (1) the electric potential in the piezoelectric layer induced by the magnetic potential is not uniform but exhibits concentration near the edge/corner of the plate; (2) the mechanically clamped boundary condition can enhance the ME effect by a factor of 10 as compared with the traction-free case; (3) the ME effect in a composite plate is always stronger than that in the corresponding composite beam; (4) a large aspect ratio of the plate corresponds to an increased ME effect; (5) the in-plane longitudinal ME effect is larger than the out-of-plane one.