Piezoelastic materials entail piezoelectric polarization that is direc
tly proportional to the applied strain. Therefore, piezoelastic materi
als have recently attracted considerable attention because of their po
tential use in intelligent structural systems. In this paper, we treat
a transient problem of piezothermoelasticity in a hexagonal plate of
class 6 mm subjected to transient temperature change. We analyze the t
ransient problem by use of the potential function method, which can se
parate the coupling between the thermoelastic and electric fields. Num
erical calculations for the transient problem are carried out for a ca
dmium selenide solid, and the results are presented graphically in com
parison with those for a steady problem.