Accurate Modeling of the Electric Field within Piezoelectric Layers for Active Composite Structures

Abstract

The article considers thin-walled active structures, which utilize the piezoelectric patches as both sensor and actuator components. Most of the developed models for this type of application make an assumption of a constant electric field and, consequently, a linear distribution of the electric potential over the thickness of the piezopatches. Some recent papers use higher-order functions to model the mentioned electric quantities. In the study, it is demonstrated through an analytical deduction that a quadratic distribution of the electric potential and a linear distribution of the electric field are adequate for the piezoelectric patch that exhibits kinematics described by a first-order two-dimensional theory. A degenerated shell element is developed for modeling purposes and a set of numerical analyses is performed in order to demonstrate the additional stiffening effect caused by the refined functions for the electric quantities. The significance of the effect is discussed in detail.

Keywords

active structure piezoelectric composites finite shell element.

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