Mechanical Behavior Of Bi-Stable Laminated Composite Shells With Piezoelectric Layers And Numerical Simulation

In this paper an analytical model for bi-stable laminated composite shell structures with piezoelectric layers is proposed. The model incorporates the effect of coupling bending-stretching deformations. The mathematical expression for elastic strain energy, which characterizes two stable states of the structure, i.e., a coiled state in which the structure is folded along its length and an extended state in which the structure is unfolded, is derived. Computational results are presented for the effects of angle of lay-up and voltage value on rolled-up radii of the structures. In addition, a laminated shell element model is constructed by means of the versatile ANSYS code. Based on the model, numerical simulation on the process of rolling-up of the shell is conducted, and the rolled-up radius and stress distributions in the shell are determined. Comparisons of the rolled-up radius show that the theoretical results agree well with data from the numerical simulation.