A spectral Tchebychev solution for electromechanical analysis of thin curved panels with multiple integrated piezo-patches

This paper presents an electromechanical model for predicting the dynamics of curved panels with multiple surface-integrated piezo-patches. The boundary value problem governing the electro-elastic dynamic behavior of a (doubly-) curved panel and piezo-patch structure is derived following the first order shear deformation (FSDT) theory. Spectral Tchebychev approach is used to numerically solve the system dynamics and obtain voltage and mechanical frequency response functions (FRFs). Mass and stiffness contributions of piezo-patch(es) as well as two-way electromechanical coupling behavior are incorporated in the model for both modal analysis and frequency response calculations. To validate the accuracy of the developed solution technique, the results for various cases including a single patch and multiple patches on a straight/curved host panel are compared to those obtained from finite-element (FE) analyses. It is shown that the maximum difference in the predicted natural frequencies between the ST and FE results is below 1%, and the harmonic analyses' results obtained using the presented solution technique excellently match the FE results. Furthermore, the effect of multiple piezoelectric patches to achieve higher voltage values in the application of energy harvesting is investigated when the mode jumping phenomenon occurs due to the increasing curvature. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.