An efficient hybrid plate model for accurate analysis of smart composite laminates

An efficient C-0 continuous two-dimensional finite element model for the accurate analysis of laminated composite plates embedded and/or surface bonded with piezoelectric layers and subjected to mechanical loading and/or electrical potential has been presented in this article. The problem of smart laminates involves the coupling between mechanical and electrical fields. The mechanical/structural component is modeled by an efficient equivalent single-layer plate theory, which ensures interlaminar shear stress continuity and zero transverse shear stress conditions at the top and bottom of the plate surfaces. Moreover, this theory contains unknowns at the reference plane (i.e. the mid-plane) only. The electrical field is modeled using layer-wise theory, which contains the unknowns at each layer interfaces. In order to calculate the accurate through-the-thickness transverse shear stress variations, a simple approach based on least square error method is applied to the three-dimensional equilibrium equations of the plate problem at the postprocessing stage, after in-plane stresses are calculated using the finite element model based on the above-mentioned refined plate theory and layer-wise theory. The proposed combine model, which may be called as a refined hybrid plate model, is implemented to analyze the coupled problem of piezoelectricity in laminated composites and sandwich plate bending.