Abstract
Elastic behavior of piezo-laminates under cylindrical bending is studied using 2D-elasticity model and classical lamination theory (CLT). The stresses and out-of-plane displacements are obtained for standard piezoelectric bimorph and newly proposed piezoelectric laminate with functionally graded microstructure (FGM) plates under cylindrical bending generated by electric field throughout the thickness of the laminate. The FGM piezoelectric laminates are composite materials whose electroelastic properties are varied through their thickness. The properties can vary in a continuous or a stepwise manner. The FGM laminate investigated in this paper is of a stepwise FGM where different piezoelectric composite layers are stacked to form FGM laminate. The feasibility of FGM laminate is studied. The limitations of CLT are investigated against the 2D-elasticity model. CLT solutions are found to coincide well with the elasticity solutions for high aspect ratios while the CLT solutions gave poor results compared to the 2D-elasticity solutions for low aspect ratios. The analytical models, CLT and 2D-elasticity, are investigated against the Finite Element Methods (FEM). Standard bimorph of piezoelectric actuator was fabricated and the displacement measurements resulted in a good agreement to the analytical and FEM results.