Large deformation analysis of piezolaminated smart structures using higher-order shear deformation theory

In this paper geometrically nonlinear analysis of piezolaminated smart composite plates and shells is presented. The degenerated shell element is formulated using total Lagrangian and higher-order shear deformation theory ( HOST). von Karman hypothesis is used in the formulation and the finite element equations are derived using energy principles. The electromechanical coupling linear constitutive model given by Tierstein is applied for the formulation. Nonlinear equations are solved adopting the Newton-Raphson iterative technique. The model has been validated by comparing the nonlinear deflections of a bimorph beam with the results in the literature. Numerical studies on the smart plates and shell structures have been presented using different boundary and loading conditions. Through the comparison of results between the first-order shear deformation theory (FOST) and the HOST models, the performance and accuracy of the HOST model has been demonstrated