Refined triangular element for laminated elastic–piezoelectric plates

A refined three-noded triangular element based on the mixed theory is developed for the coupled-field analysis of laminated plates containing piezoelectric layers, which satisfies the interelement C1 weak-continuity conditions. The concept of mixed theory is that the mechanical component is modeled by the global–local higher-order theory proposed by [Li XY, Liu D. Generalized laminate theories based on double superposition hypothesis. Int J Numer Methods Eng 1997;40:1197–1212], which satisfies the free surface conditions and the geometric and stress continuity conditions at interfaces whereas the electric field is modeled with layerwise theory. The numerical examples of coupled and uncoupled analysis show that the transverse shear stresses can be accurately computed by the constitutive equations and the present finite element method is suitable in predicting coupled behaviors of laminated plates under mechanical and electric loadings.