Stress analysis of smart composite plate structures

Abstract

In the present study, the electro-mechanical responses of smart laminated composite plates with piezoelectric materials are derived using a two-dimensional (2 D) displacement-based non-polynomial higher-order shear deformation theory. The kinematics of the mathematical model incorporates the deformation of laminates which account for the effects of transverse shear deformation and a non-linear variation of the in-plane displacements using inverse sine hyperbolic function of the thickness coordinate. The equilibrium equations are obtained using the minimization of energy principle known as the principle of minimum potential energy (PMPE) which is also based on a variational approach and the solutions are obtained using Navier’s solution technique for diaphragm supported smart laminated composite plates. The responses obtained in the form of deflection and stresses are compared with three dimensional (3 D) solutions and also with different polynomial and non-polynomial based higher-order theories in the literature. The transverse shear stresses are obtained using 3 D equilibrium equations of elasticity to enhance the accuracy of the present results. Various examples are numerically solved to establish the efficiency of the present model.