Dynamic Analysis of Cylindrical Shells with Flexoelectric Actuation

Abstract

The converse flexoelectric effect can be utilized to actuate and control flexible structures. Assessing the precision flexoelectric actuation and control effectiveness of cylindrical shells is the main objective of this study. The application of voltage to the line electrode on the external surface of a flexoelectric patch, coupled with the bottom surface electrode layer, causes an inhomogeneous electric field to be generated, which consequently induces internal actuation stresses. The stress-induced membrane control force and bending control moment generate modal control effects, which regulate the cylindrical shell vibration. For an elastic cylindrical shell with flexoelectric actuation, the modal forces and microscopic behaviors are studied to evaluate the flexoelectric actuation effects. For the transverse direction, the electric field gradient drops sharply with increasing distance from the line electrode; thus, the induced internal actuation stresses concentrate on the upper surface. Due to the inhomogeneous electric field gradient distributions, the membrane control force and bending control moment concentrate like spikes. To evaluate the actuation effects, modal force distributions of the elastic cylindrical shell with flexoelectric actuation are analyzed with respect to design parameters, such as the flexoelectric patch thickness, line-electrode radius, cylindrical shell thickness, and shell radius.