Numerical Studies of Piezoelectric Composites Using NURBS for Geometry and Field Functions

Abstract

This paper deals with the response studies of piezoelectric sandwich composites by the energy method. The equation of motion is deduced from the principles of minimum potential energy. To do this displacement and electrical fields are
required as a priori. Hence, the above said field functions are described by Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) in two and three dimensional domains and applied against static and free vibration analyses of thin and very thick sandwich
plates and piezoelectric prismatic bar. Nonlinear variation of the electric potential is considered through the thickness and modelled by a discrete layer-wise linear scheme. The present formulation is successfully validated against a finite element
code.