Smart laminated shells and deflection control strategy with optimal voltage

The present paper deals with a finite element analysis procedure for smart laminated composite shells based on Reissner's principle. Hermitian polynom ials have been used for the development of curved surfaces and these permit the construction of any arbitrary shell geometry. The piezoelectric consti tutive equations are incorporated in the shell structural constitutive equa tions. The finite element codes are accordingly developed and results are o btained for various composite laminated shell panels. A deflection control strategy is proposed based on pseudo-inversion and modified Lavenberg-Marqu ardt's optimization algorithms. A smart laminated beam is considered as a c ase study for evaluating the proposed deflection control strategy. Results are obtained for various locations of the piezoelectric patches and it is o bserved that the strategy can be effectively used for the deflection contro l of a beam. The method so developed may also be applied to any piezo-lamin ated plate or shell configuration.