Electric assumptions for piezoelectric laminate analysis

Abstract

In computational analysis of piezoelectric laminates which may comprise piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric plies, the transverse electric field is often assumed to be piecewise constant along the transverse direction. This conventional assumption may lead to significant errors unless the piezoelectric ply is considerably thinner than the overall thickness of the laminate. To this end, two alternate assumptions termed EL and DC on the spatial distributions of the electric variables are proposed. In EL, the transverse electric field is taken to be piecewise linear along the transverse direction. In the DC assumption, the transverse electric displacement is taken to be piecewise constant along the transverse direction. The rationales leading to the proposed assumptions are discussed. Numerical examples indicate that the proposed assumptions are markedly more accurate than the conventional one. However, EL becomes inaccurate when its piecewise function spans more than one ply. In this light, DC often consumes less electric potential d.o.f.s and is more efficient than EL.