Analysis of the dynamical behavior of piezoceramic actuators using piezoelectric isogeometric finite elements

In this paper an electromechanically coupled isogeometric finite element is utilized to analyse Lamb wave excitation with piezoceramic actuators. An effective actuator design reduces the energy needed for Lamb wave excitation, which is beneficial if a structural health monitoring system should be applied for a structure. For a better understanding of the actuator behavior the piezoeceramics are studied both free and bonded at a structure. The numerical part of the analysis is performed utilizing isogeometric finite elements. To obtain the optimal performance for the numerical analysis the effect of k-refinement of the isogeometric element with respect to the convergence is studied and discussed. The optimal numerical setup with the best convergence rate is proposed and is validated with free piezoeceramic actuators. The validated model is then utilized to study the impact of actuator shape and adhesive bondline effect to the wave amplitude. The study shows that simplified analytical equations do not predict the optimal excitation frequencies for all piezoceramic designs accurately.