Effects of viscoelastic bonding layer on performance of piezoelectric actuator attached to elastic structure

Abstract

In the context of the finite elements analysis, the mechanical performance of viscoelastically bonded smart structures is investigated and analyzed. Three different models are considered and compared. In the 1st model, the actuator is glued to the host structure. On the other hand, in the two other models the actuator is glued to the bonding layer which is glued to the host structures. To explore the effect of the bonding layer characteristics on the mechanical behavior of the host structure, both elastic and viscoelastic layers are considered. The Prony’s series are utilized to simulate the viscoelastic constitutive response. The mathematical formulation of the coupled problem is presented and the dynamic finite elements equations of motion of the coupled electromechanical systems are introduced. The proposed methodology is verified by comparing the obtained results with the available results in the literature and good consentience is observed. Both static and dynamic vibration behaviors are studied incorporating the interfacial shear stresses between the bonding layer and the host structure as well as the displacements as a comparison criterion to determine the performance controlling function of the host structure. Parametric study of piezoelectric properties showed that permittivity is required in solving such systems but does not affect the performance. On the other hand, the piezoelectric characteristics have significant effects on the mechanical performance of smart structures and can be used in the optimum selection of combination just like mechanical properties and geometry. Additionally, the obtained results show that the model with viscoelastic bonding layer has an overall static performance nearly half of elastic bonding layer model while it has a slight effect on the dynamic behavior compared with the corresponding elastic bonding layer. The proposed methodology with the obtained results is supportive in the applications of structure health monitoring and dynamics of smart structural systems. The proposed procedure could be extended in a future work to include the coupled electromagnetic effects on the dynamic behavior of smart structures in hygrothermal environment.