Thermal postbuckling of shear-deformable laminated plates with piezoelectric actuators

A thermal postbuckling analysis is presented for a simply supported, shear- deformable laminated plate with piezoelectric actuators subjected to the co mbined action of thermal and electric loads. The temperature field consider ed is associated with a parabolic distribution over the plate surface and a uniform distribution in the thickness direction. The electric field is ass umed to be the transverse component, E-Z, only. The material properties are assumed to be independent of the temperature and the electric field. The g overning equations of a laminated plate are based on Reddy's higher-order s hear-deformation plate theory that includes thermo-piezoelectric effects. T he initial geometric imperfection of the plate is taken into account. The a nalysis uses a mixed Galerkin-perturbation technique to determine thermal b uckling temperature and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illus trations concern the thermal postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect , symmetric cross-ply laminated plates with fully covered or embedded piezo electric layers under different sets of thermal and electric loading condit ions. The effects played by transverse shear deformation, the plate aspect ratio, stacking sequence, thermal load ratio, applied voltage as well as in itial geometric imperfections are studied. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.