Shaeri N., Sadr Lahidjani M., Yousefi-Koma A.

In this work, composite thin plates with piezoelectric elements have been modeled by Finite Element Method. This model can be used for static analysis of thin plates that have piezoelectric actuators bonded to the surfaces or integrated within the structure. This model can be employed in analyzing the behavior of smart plates in order to control their shapes in static mode or vibration control in dynamic mode. The main difference between this model and other finite element models is that the electric degrees of freedom, which are not required for piezoelectric actuators; are not considered for piezoelectric elements. Thus, this model reduces the total number of degrees of freedom and consequently reduces the run time. In this model , classical theory of plates is used for analyzing the composite plate, and results of numerical examples show that this model has a good agreement with other solutions of standard FEM software packages as well as experimental results. Results also match quite well with the analytical results of a flexible rectangular plate.