Analysis of Laminated Composites Containing Distributed Piezoelectric Ceramics

Abstract

A finite element formulation was developed for modeling the dynamic as well as static response of laminated composites containing distributed piezoelectric ceram ics subjected to both mechanical and electrical loadings. The formulation was derived from the variational principle with consideration for both the total potential energy of the structures and the electrical potential energy of the piezoceramics. An eight-node three- dimensional composite brick element was implemented for the analysis, and three- dimensional incompatible modes were introduced to take into account the global bending behavior resulting from the local deformations of the piezoceramics. Experiments were also conducted to verify the analysis and the computer simulations. werall, the compari sons between the predictions and the data agreed fairly well.