Active strain-transfer analysis in a piezoceramic system using a finite-element method and experimental investigation

Abstract

Piezoelectric materials have been increasingly used in damage mitigation applications and in real-time health monitoring of structures. The key for these is the distributed piezoelectric material within the structure. In cutting down the design time and the cost involved in modeling structures, the finite-element method proves a useful tool. This is more scalable with appropriate usage of the number and type of elements involved in modeling. Before going into the modeling of more complicated structures, for impact and damage mitigation, a basic comparison of the finite-element method and experimental work was carried out by means of active strain transfer from the piezoelectric to the beam.