On Phase Field Modeling of Ferroelectrics: Parameter Identification and Verification

This contribution introduces a thermodynamically consistent, fully electro-mechanically coupled micro-mechanical model for ferroelectric materials. Adopting a phase field concept, in which the spontaneous polarization is used as order parameter, a Ginzburg-Landau type theory is formulated for the evolution of the order parameter. The equations are discretized within the scope of the Finite Element Method, and implicit time integration is used to solve the non-linear evolution equation. Examples illustrate the physical meaning of phase field parameters and give an application to multi-axial switching in which experimental results are used for comparison.