Three-dimensional analysis of the coupled thermo-piezoelectro-mechanical behaviour of multilayered plates using the differential quadrature technique

This paper investigates the behaviour of multilayered composite plates subject to thermo-piezoelectric-mechanical loading. The analysis is performed using the three-dimensional equations of thermo-piezoelasticity and the differential quadrature (DQ) numerical technique. Solutions to the thermo-piezoelectric laminated plates are made possible with the development and implementation of a DQ layerwise modelling technique. The formulation allows different boundary conditions to be imposed at the edges of the plate. Numerical results for different example plate problems are presented, and the effects of the thermo-piezoelasticity and boundary conditions of these problems are investigated. The DQ model predictions are validated with existing results as the comparison reveals good agreement between two. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.