Aa. Bent et al., ANISOTROPIC ACTUATION WITH PIEZOELECTRIC FIBER COMPOSITES, Journal of intelligent material systems and structures, 6(3), 1995, pp. 338-349
An investigation was made into the held of planar structural actuation
with anisetropic active materials. The mechanisms for creating anisot
ropic actuators were discussed, and the impact of anisotropy was shown
at the individual lamina level and at the laminated structure level.
Models for laminated structures were developed using an augmented Clas
sical Laminated plate Theory incorporating induced stress terms to acc
ommodate anisotropic actuator materials. A twist-extension coupled lam
inate was used to exemplify how twist can be directly induced into iso
tropic host structures using anisotropic actuation. Four anisotropic a
ctuators with different material anisotropies were compared using this
example. Finally, a laminate incorporating piezoelectric fiber compos
ite actuators was manufactured and tested. Excellent agreement was fou
nd between the predicted and experimental response.