REFINED THEORY OF SANDWICH BEAMS WITH PIEZOELECTRIC FACE SHEETS

摘要

This paper presents a refined theory of sandwich beams containing piezoelectric face sheets. In the classical sandwich plate theory, face sheet thickness effect is not considered and the stresses are assumed to be uniform through the thickness of the face sheet. However, in sandwich beams with thick face sheets the variation of stresses through the thickness must be considered. In this paper equations for a sandwich beam with piezoelectric face sheets are derived using the principle of minimum potential energy. The equations for an adaptive sandwich beam structure with low shear modulus core are considered with the piezoelectric effect. The new theory is illustrated by considering both mechanical and electrical loading of a cantilever beam. The deflections and stresses are compared with that from classical sandwich theory.