Enhancement of the dynamic buckling load and analysis of active constrained layer damping with extension and shear mode piezoceramic actuators

We consider geometric and material nonlinearities when studying numerically, by the finite element method, transient three-dimensional electroelastic deformations of a graphite-epoxy square plate sandwiched between two piezoceramic (PZT) layers. Points on the four edges of the bottom surface of the plate are restrained from moving vertically. The two opposite edges of the plate are loaded by equal in-plane compressive loads that increase linearly with time and the other two edges are kept traction free. The plate material is modeled as orthotropic and neoHookean. For the transversely isotropic PZT the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor and the electric displacement are expressed as second degree polynomials in the Green-St. Venant strain tensor and the electric field. Both direct and converse piezoelectric effects are accounted for in the PZT. The plate is taken to have buckled when its centroidal deflection equals three times the plate thickness.; The dynamic buckling load for the plate is found to strongly depend upon the rate of rise of the applied tractions. An increase in the plate thickness relative to that of the PZT actuators decreases the effectiveness of the PZT in enhancing the buckling load for the plate.; The finite element code was modified to also analyze, in time domain, transient deformations of a viscoelastic material for which the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is expressed as a linear functional of the strain history of the Green-St. Venant strain tensor. It was used to analyze three-dimensional deformations of a thick laminated plate with layers made of aluminum, a viscoelastic material and a PZT. The following two arrangements of layers are considered. In one case a central PZT layer is surrounded on both sides by viscoelastic layers and aluminum layers are on the outside surfaces. The PZT is poled in the longitudinal direction and an electric field is applied in the thickness direction. Thus shearing deformations of the PZT layer are dominant. In the second arrangement, the aluminum layer is in the middle and the PZT layers are on the outside. The poling direction and the electric field are in the thickness direction; thus its extensional deformations are predominant.; Buckling behavior of a sandwich plate containing a soft core is also studied. The effects of the ratio of the elastic moduli of the outer layers to those of the core, and of the core thickness on the buckling load are analyzed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...