A coupled-field model of a rotating composite beam with an integrated nonlinear piezoelectric active element

Abstract

The dynamics of a system consisting of a rotating rigid hub and a thin-walled composite beam with embedded active element is presented. The beam comprises of a generally orthotropic host made of an arbitrary laminate and an additional layer of a transversely isotropic piezoceramic material. The higher-order constitutive relations for piezoelectric are used to properly model its electromechanical structural behaviour when operated in near resonance conditions or subjected to strong electric fields. In the mathematical formulation of the problem, the full two-way coupling piezoelectric effect is considered by adopting the assumption of a spanwise electric field variation. To enhance the generality of the formulation, the model considers also the hub mass moment of inertia and a non-constant rotating speed case. A general nonlinear system of mutually coupled partial differential equations is derived using the Hamilton principle, and the Galerkin method is applied to reduce these governing equations to the ordinary differential ones. A specific case of CAS lamination scheme that exhibits flapwise bending and twist mode elastic coupling is discussed in detail. Numerical results for system free vibrations are obtained to investigate the natural mode shapes and electrical field spatial distribution depending on the system rotation speed and laminae fibre orientation angle. Next, a forced vibration case is studied by applying to the hub a periodic driving torque with zero mean value. Nonlinear frequency response curves for the combined beam–hub system together with time series plots are prepared for different driving torque scenarios.