A study of the polarization–electric-field nonlinear effect on the response of smart composite plates

TLDR: In this article, an attempt is made to study these (P-E) nonlinear effects on the static response of laminated composite plates with piezo actuators and to find the most effective piezo lay-up and ply orientation which gives the maximum deflections.

Abstract: Polarization–electric-field (P–E) interaction results in rendering the stress tensor non-symmetric and in a nonlinear force term in the equilibrium equation. In this paper, an attempt is made to study these (P–E) nonlinear effects on the static response of laminated composite plates with piezo actuators. Further, this paper also focuses on finding the most effective piezo lay-up and ply orientation which gives the maximum deflections. Four different piezo lay-up configurations and three ply orientations are considered. It has been observed from the study that width-wise strips show more transverse bending and twisting. However, full length piezo layers show maximum longitudinal bending. The results of nonlinear analysis show a more considerable softening trend in deformations than that of the linear analysis in the case of longitudinal bending and twisting. In the case of transverse bending this nonlinear effect shows a hardening trend. Further, it has been observed that the influence of P–E nonlinearity depends on the stiffness of the core material, the geometric arrangement of piezo patches, the boundary conditions and the actuation voltage.