A layerwise approach to piezo-electric plates accounting for adhesive flexibility and delaminated regions

Multilayer plates with piezoelectric layers are modeled considering the deformation of the adhesive layers. Special finite elements, that use linear Lagrange and conforming Hermite type interpolation functions, are developed. The results of the formulation are compared with the other results presented in the literature. Since flexible bonding formulation is also suitable for modeling delamination, case studies containing partially delaminated PZT patches are presented. It is shown for a cantilever plate that, while partial delamination between the piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric layers does not affect the maximum deformation significantly, it affects the local stresses near delaminated regions.