Thermo-Piezo-Elastic Analysis of Complex Structures Using a Node Dependent Kinematic One-Dimensional Model

Aerospace structures can be subject to complex stress fields that are originated by different external loads. The classical structural analysis considers the mechanical loads and aims to evaluate the stress fields due to these external forces. When complex structures are subject to a strong temperature variation they may present a large deformation that may produce complex stress fields. The evaluation of these deformations is mandatory in order to avoid the failure of the structure, that is, a thermo-mechanical analysis should be performed. Moreover, the use of advanced materials, such as piezo-electric materials, allows the displacement filed to be evaluated, if they are used as sensors, or, the deformations to be reduced, if they are used as actuators. Multi-field analyses are mandatory in these cases and accurate thermo-piezo-elastic models must be used to predict the response of the structure. Complex stress fields cannot be investigated using classical structural models, beams and plates, because their kinematic assumptions, e.g. rigid cross-section for the beam of constant thickness for the plates. The use of three-dimensional models may achieve accurate results but it may require a huge computational cost. The present work extends the use of a refined node-dependent kinematic one-dimensional model to the thermo-piezo-mechanical analysis. Node-dependent kinematic one-dimensional models allow refined kinematic models to be used only in the area of the structure where complex phenomena are expected, that is, these models are able to reduce the computational cost preserving the accuracy of the results only where is required. The fully coupled thermo-piezo-elastic model has been derived in the framework of the Carrera unified Formulation that allows the structural matrices to be written in a general and compact form. Static and dynamic analysis have been performed in order to assess the present model. The results have been compared with those from literature and with those from refined models with a constant kinematic. The outcome of this research show that node-dependent kinematic one-dimensional models may preserve the accuracy of a three-dimensional solution with a lower computational cost if compared with the refined models with a constant kinematic