Proceedings Article | 20 April 2016
Proc. SPIE. 9803, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2016
KEYWORDS: Actuators, Ferroelectric materials, Sensors, Interfaces, Numerical simulations, Wave propagation, Transducers, Finite element methods, Optical simulations, Chemical elements, Semiconducting wafers, Systems modeling, Piezoelectric effects
This paper presents a novel two-layer spectral finite element model, consisting of PZT wafer and host structure, to
simulate PZT-induced Lamb wave propagation in beam-like and plate-like structures. Based on the idea of equal
displacement on the interface between PZT wafer and host structure, the one-dimensional spectral beam element of PZT-host
beam and two-dimensional spectral plate element of PZT-host plate are considered as one hybrid element,
respectively. A novel approach is proposed by taking the coupling effect of piezoelectric transducers in the thickness
direction into account. The dynamic equation of the two-layer spectral element is derived from Hamilton’s principle.
Validity of the developed spectral finite element is verified through numerical simulation. The result indicates that,
compared with the conventional finite element method (FEM) based on elasticity, the proposed spectral finite element is
proved to have a high accuracy in modeling Lamb wave propagation, meanwhile, significantly improve the calculation
efficiency.