Study of the effects of shear piezoelectric actuators on the performance of laminated composite shells by an isogeometric approach

This paper presents an isogeometric approach based on the Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) to investigate static and free vibration responses of smart composite shells integrated with shear piezoelectric actuators. The degenerated shell formulation according to the Mindlin-Reissner shell theory is combined with the isogeometric approach. To model the laminated smart shells, the Equivalent Single Layer (ESL) theory is used. To consider the electric potential in the shear piezoelectric actuator layers, a sub-layer approach is adopted that assumes linear variation in the thickness direction of the sub-layer. The effect of different mechanical and electrical boundary conditions on transverse deformation and natural frequencies of laminated smart shells by applying the electric field have been investigated. In the case studies, two parallel edges of the considered shell structures are assumed simply supported and the other two with an arbitrary combination of boundary conditions including clamped, free or simply supports. Also, open-circuit and closed-circuit conditions are used as electric boundary conditions. Investigation of the effects of the shear piezoelectric actuator layers on various factors, including the simultaneous mechanical and electrical loadings as well as the radius of curvature of the shell are amongst the objects of this paper. Also, several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the isogeometric approach in the study of shear effects of the piezoelectric actuator layers. The obtained results indicate the reliability and desirability of the proposed approach.