Piezoelectric Co-Rotational 3-Node Shell Element

Gil Rama,Manfred Zehn,Dragan Marinkovic

doi:10.3844/ajeassp.2016.902.912

Gil Rama, Manfred Zehn + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3844/ajeassp.2016.902.912

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Abstract

Geometrically nonlinear FE-analysis of active piezoelectric thin-walled shell structures, based on a Co-Rotational (CR) formulation and the Cell-Smoothed Discrete-Shear-Gap 3-node shell element (CS-DSG3) is presented in this study. The electric potential across the thickness of piezolayers is approximated by a linear function. The basic assumption of the applied Co-Rotational (CR) FEM formulation is that translations and rotations are finite, whereas the strains are small. Large rotation theory is used to update the rotational degrees of freedom. The proposed formulation is tested by means of the originally developed program. A set of piezoelectric coupled static linear and nonlinear cases are studied and the obtained results are compared with those available in the literature. A very good agreement of the results is noted, whereby the numerical effort could be reduced and numerical stability improved compared to other geometrically nonlinear FEM formulations.

Highlights

In engineering practice smart structures are utilized to achieve better operational safety, noise reduction, improved comfort, etc
Marinkovic et al (2006) have proposed a full biquadratic degenerated shell element for piezoelectric active laminates. This element has been exhaustively used to investigate various aspects of thinwalled smart structures, such as: Adequate approach to describe of the electric field in the piezolayers (Marinkovic et al, 2007), geometrically nonlinear effects (Marinkovic et al, 2008), how mesh distortion affects the results with the piezoelectric coupling involved (Marinkovic and Marinkovic, 2012), etc
The Cell-Smoothed Discrete-Shear-Gap 3-node shell element (CS-DSG3) Co-Rotational (CR) shell element developed by Rama et al (2016) is extended to geometrically nonlinear analysis of composite shells integrated with piezoelectric layers

Summary

Introduction

In engineering practice smart structures are utilized to achieve better operational safety, noise reduction, improved comfort, etc. Marinkovic et al (2006) have proposed a full biquadratic degenerated shell element for piezoelectric active laminates This element has been exhaustively used to investigate various aspects of thinwalled smart structures, such as: Adequate approach to describe of the electric field in the piezolayers (Marinkovic et al, 2007), geometrically nonlinear effects (Marinkovic et al, 2008), how mesh distortion affects the results with the piezoelectric coupling involved (Marinkovic and Marinkovic, 2012), etc. The CS-DSG3 Co-Rotational (CR) shell element developed by Rama et al (2016) is extended to geometrically nonlinear analysis of composite shells integrated with piezoelectric layers. With the given predefined electric voltage, φe, the element loads induced through the inverse piezoelectric effect (actuation) are computed in the following manner: Fe,φ = -Ke,uφφe (31).

Conclusion

Findings

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