Dynamic modeling and analysis of the PZT-bonded composite Timoshenko beams: Spectral element method

The health of thin laminated composite beams is often monitored using the ultrasonic guided waves excited by wafer-type piezoelectric transducers (PZTs). Thus, for the smart composite beams which consist of a laminated composite base beam and PZT layers, it is very important to develop a very reliable mathematical model and to use a very accurate computational method to predict accurate dynamic characteristics at very high ultrasonic frequency. In this paper, the axial-bending-shear-lateral contraction coupled differential equations of motion are derived first by the Hamilton's principle with Lagrange multipliers. The smart composite beam is represented by a Timoshenko beam model by adopting the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) for the laminated composite base beam. The axial deformation of smart composite beam is improved by taking into account the effects of lateral contraction by adopting the concept of Mindlin-Herrmann rod theory. The spectral element model is then formulated by the variation approach from coupled differential equations of motion transformed into the frequency domain via the discrete Fourier transform. The high accuracy of the present spectral element model is verified by comparing with other solution methods: the finite element model developed in this paper and the commercial FEA package ANSYS. Finally the dynamics and wave characteristics of some example smart composite beams are investigated through the numerical studies. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.