Shape control of intelligent composite stiffened structures using piezoelectric materials - a finite element approach

Abstract

A finite element procedure is adopted for the analysis of composite stiffened structures with piezoelectric materials attached to it either at the top or bottom surfaces or inside the substrate as a composite layer. In the large space structures made of strong and light weight materials, the necessity of using self controlling strategies becomes important day by day for deformation control and suppression of undesired oscillation, specially for the unmanned space vehicles in the outer space. As the importance of stiffened composite configuration in aerospace structures has already been established for their optimum use of materials with high strength to weight ratio, a study of electromechanical interaction problem with these structures become necessary. Analysis of composite stiffened plates with piezoelectric sensors/actuators attached to it has been carried out for the first time. Static analysis of intelligent structures, i.e., structures integrated with distributed actuators and sensors, is presented in this work. The distributed sensors and actuator layers, made of piezoelectric materials, are perfectly bonded to the structures. The substrate is a laminated composite stiffened plate made of graphite/epoxy materials. To validate the present procedure, several experimental and analytical examples already solved by the previous researchers, have been compared. Finally, some new results for the stiffened composite plates, hitherto not published, have been included for future research.