FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE STRUCTURES CONTAINING DISTRIBUTED PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATORS AND SENSORS

A finite element formulation is developed to model the response of lam inated composite plates containing distributed piezoceramic actuators and sensors. The stress equations of motion are derived using the vari ational principle with respect to the total structural and electrical potential energy. These stress equations are converted to a two-dimens ional finite element equation using a First Order Shear Deformation La minated Plate Theory. The finite element equation is based on the QUAD 4 isoparametric quadrilateral element which is currently used in such FEA codes as COSMIC/NASTRAN and ASTROS. This new piezoelectric finite element formulation was incorporated into an FEA computer code and val idated by comparison with published experimental and numerical results .