A Finite Element Approach For Multilayered Plates Including Piezo-layers

Abstract

The smart laminated structure composed of common composite material laminae and piezoelectric material laminae have been rapidly developed for its promising high performance application. The development and implementation of finite element methods are required in design and analysis of laminated piezoelectric composite structures. The purpose of our research is to develop a more efficient tinite element code for vibration control and shape control of laminated composite plates, which contain one or more piezoelectric material layers as actuators or sensors subjected to mechanical and electrical loads Each piezoelectric layer can be attached to or embedded in the laminate and have a different voltage applied. Therefore a new FEA element with twenty displacement degrees of freedom and m (the number of piezo-layers) electrical degrees of freedom has been built. The basic theories including laminate theory for piezoelectric composite are stated firstly. Then the two-dimensional mechanical and electrical coupling finite element model was described and the formulations were developed. The explicit forms of the derived electromechanical matrices were presented also. After the finite element code was verified, some examples of numerical simulation of vibration control and quasistatic shape control by using this code were shown. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 35, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509