Shape control analysis of piezoelectric laminated composite plate using finite element method

Abstract

A study of shape control of piezoelectric laminated composite plate has been conducted in this thesis by employing the finite element analysis. Elastic field and electric field of the piezoelectric laminated composite plate has been coupled through the linear piezoelectric constitutive equations. Piezoelectric actuators and sensors are modeled as additional layers either to be surface bonded or emeded in the laminated composite plate. A higher-order shear displacement theory (HSDT) developed by Pervez (1991) has been employed in order to accurately describe the kinematic behavior of the piezoelectridc laminated composite plates. In the finite element model, an eight-noded two-dimensional isoparametric element is used. Each node has seven mechanical degrees of freedom and one electgrical degree of freedom. A computer code was written in C++ based on the finite elelment model, and was successfully and comprehensively validated with experimental and numerical results that are readily available in the literatures. The study of shape control has been done in two parts: open-loop shape control and closed-loop shape control. The effect of boundary condition, actuator voltage, fiber orientation, length to thickness ratio of actuator, segmented actuator and actuator orientation have been analyzed for the open-loop shape conrol. Under closed-loop shape control, the present research demonstrates the ability of the piezoelectric composite laminated plate to actively control its shape under varying loads.