Free Vibration of Simply Supported Piezolaminated Composite Plates Using Finite Element Method

Abstract

Piezolaminated smart structures are becoming more popular as they can be used as light weight structures to control structural response in various structural applications. Piezoelectric materials have direct and converse piezoelectric effects which can be adequately employed to control the deflection, shape and vibration of the structure. A finite element methodology based on higher order shear deformation theory is developed for free vibration analysis of smart piezolaminated composite plates subjected to combined action of electrical and mechanical loading. To achieve the accurate prediction of the frequencies, a finite 2D isoparametric element for the mechanical displacement field is combined with an electric potential field. Numerical results are presented for free vibration analysis of simply supported piezolaminated composite plate considering different electric condition with varying thickness to span ratio.