Analysis of smart damping of laminated composite beams using mesh free method

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the development of mesh free model for the performance analysis of active constrained layered damping (ACLD) treatments on smart laminated composite beams. The overall structure is composed of a substrate laminated composite beam integrated with a viscoelastic layer and a piezoelectric layer attached partially or fully at the top surface of the substrate beam. The piezoelectric layer acts as the active constraining layer of the smart beam and the viscoelastic layer acts as the constrained layer. A layer wise displacement theory has been used to derive the models. Both symmetric cross-ply and antisymmetric angle-ply laminated beams are considered for the numerical analysis. It is observed that ACLD treatment significantly improves the active damping properties of the substrate beam. The numerical results also reveal that the triangular ACLD treatment is more effective than the rectangular ACLD treatment of same thickness and volume for active damping of smart composite beams.