Hybrid-stabilized solid-shell model of laminated composite piezoelectric structures under non-linear distribution of electric potential through thickness

Eighteen-node solid-shell nite element models have been developed for the analysis of laminated composite plate/shell structures embedded with piezoelectric actuators and sensors. The explicit hybrid stabilization method is employed to formulate stabilization vectors for the uniformly reduced integrated 18-node three-dimensional composite solid element. Unlike conventional piezoelectric elements, the concept of the electric nodes introduced in this paper can e ectively eliminate the burden of constraining the equality of the electric potential for the nodes lying on the same electrode. Furthermore, the nonlinear distribution of electric potential in the piezoelectric layer is expressed by introducing internal electric potential, which not only can simplify modelling but also obtains the same as the exact solution