The Ritz – Sublaminate Generalized Unified Formulation approach for piezoelectric composite plates

Abstract

This paper extends to composite plates including piezoelectric plies the variable kinematics plate modeling approach called Sublaminate Generalized Unified Formulation (SGUF). Two-dimensional plate equations are obtained upon defining a priori the through-thickness distribution of the displacement field and electric potential. According to SGUF, independent approximations can be adopted for the four components of these generalized displacements: an Equivalent Single Layer (ESL) or Layer-Wise (LW) description over an arbitrary group of plies constituting the composite plate (the sublaminate) and the polynomial order employed in each sublaminate. The solution of the two-dimensional equations is sought in weak form by means of a Ritz method. In this work, boundary functions are used in conjunction with the domain approximation expressed by an orthogonal basis spanned by Legendre polynomials. The proposed computational tool is capable to represent electroded surfaces with equipotentiality conditions. Free-vibration problems as well as static problems involving actuator and sensor configurations are addressed. Two case studies are presented, which demonstrate the high accuracy of the proposed Ritz-SGUF approach. A model assessment is proposed for showcasing to which extent the SGUF approach allows a reduction of the number of unknowns with a controlled impact on the accuracy of the result.

Thermal Buckling Behaviour of Thin and Thick Variable-Stiffness Panels

“…The approximate solution is sought here referring to the Ritz method. The procedure is briefly outlined in the following, and the interested reader is referred to [28,[44][45][46][47][48] for more details.…”

Smart structures, materials and nano technology in engineering

“…The present IJSNM special issue spans volume 9's issue 1 [1][2][3][4] and issue 2 [5][6][7][8]; it contains 8 papers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] that were extended and revised (some of them twice) according to 3 anonymous and independent peer reviewers' reports. They were spontaneously submitted following an open call to the participants of the joint 8th SMART and 6th SMN held in Madrid (Spain) from 5 to 8 June 2017.…”

“…It was closed by a technical visit to a 'design and manufacturing of aero-structures and components' supplier of renowned international (multi-national) aircraft manufacturers. Hereafter are briefly described the 8 papers of the present IJSNM special issue spanning volume 9's issue 1 [1][2][3][4] and issue 2 [5][6][7][8].…”

“…The first paper [1] was presented in 'MS07: Advanced finite element models for smart structures'; it provides an electromechanical analysis of composite and sandwich multilayered structures by shell elements with node-dependent kinematics. The second one [2], presented in 'MS05: Multifunctional structures with integrated piezoelectric elements', introduces the Ritz sub-laminate generalized unified formulation approach for piezoelectric composite plates. The third contribution [3], presented in 'SS: CRC/TR 39 PT-PIESA project' on lightweight design by integrating functions addresses, numerically and experimentally, the monitoring concept for structural integration of PZT fibre arrays in metal sheets.…”

“…As a closure, we are very thankful to the authors for their very interesting contributions and to the reviewers for their meticulous reports. Besides, the organizers of SMART and SMN 2017 are very thankful to the editor-in-chief, Professor Jinsong Leng, and to the publisher, Sage Publications, for their supports to these events by dedicating the present special issue (spanning volume 9's issue 1 [1][2][3][4] and issue 2 [5][6][7][8]) to sample contributions from those presented therein and by publishing it in open access format with weaved Articles Processing Charges (APC).…”