Modeling of piezo-induced ultrasonic wave propagation in composite structures using layered solid spectral element

This article presents the development of a three-dimensional spectral element-based Piezo-Enabled Spectral Element Analysis code to simulate piezo-induced ultrasonic wave propagation in composite structures. Piezo-Enabled Spectral Element Analysis solves the coupled electromechanical governing equations for a given arbitrary voltage input to a piezoelectric actuator and outputs the voltage response of the piezoelectric sensors. In case of modeling laminated composites, one element per ply is computationally expensive, and smeared material properties may give inaccurate results; hence, a layered solid spectral element is introduced. Layered solid spectral element can model several plies per element and uses combined nodal quadrature and Simpson's 1/3 integration rule for numerical integration of mechanical stiffness matrix. It is worth noting that Piezo-Enabled Spectral Element Analysis can interface with commercial finite element mesh generators such as Abaqus/CAE to model structures with complex configuration. Delaminations and debonds are modeled by separating the nodes in the damaged area to create a volume split. Experiments and simulations have been carried out to verify and validate Piezo-Enabled Spectral Element Analysis for composites. This article also presents simulations of ultrasonic wave propagation in a stiffened composite plate with delamination and debond.