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Multifunctional composites have great potential for applications in aerospace and automobile domains. This work aims at evaluating the properties of an RVE model consisting of a carbon fiber at the core encompassed with a layer of piezoelectric material which are embedded in a non-piezoelectric matrix (epoxy resin). The carbon fibers act as a reinforcement to perform the primary functionalities (strength and stability) as a structural member while the piezoelectric layer provides sensing and actuations. With the aid of Representative volume elements, using finite element analysis we can homogenize the model equivalent to that of an original composite. The appropriate boundary conditions allow the simulation of various configuration of models to deform when multiple arbitrary combination of electrical and mechanical loadings were applied. In the first analysis a square unit cell was subjected to certain loading and boundary conditions which allows the prediction of effective material coefficients of the multifunctional composite with circular cross sectional fibers. The achieved results of effective properties are then validated with the other methods and formerly published results available in literature. In future, multifunctional composite materials can be analyzed for anticipating effective properties with square cross section fibers and also hexagonal unit cell. The comparison of results with different combination of fiber geometries and unit cells can be observed.

RVE (Representative volume element), Effective properties, Multifunctional composite, Piezoelectric material, Finite element analysis (FEA)