Distributed sensor signal analysis of double-curvature piezoelectric laminated thin shell based on finite difference

A simplified generic method of calculating equivalent piezoelectric sensor output signal is presented for solving the signal analysis problem of shaped piezoelectric sensors laminated on double- curvature elastic thin shell. Piezoelectric sensor is discretized into many sub-areas by finite difference (FD) method. The sub-areas of FD nodes located inside or on the edge of the sensor have different effective areas. The sensing signal is affected by these effective areas and their nodal displacements as well as geometric parameters (e.g. Lamé parameters and radii of curvature) of the shell. The partial differential equation of the sensing signal is transformed to a general FD equation. In the case studies, FD sensing signal of distributed piezoelectric sensors laminated on an Euler-Bernoulli cantilever beam and a simply supported rectangular plate are analyzed, respectively. This method can be used in the output signal analysis of various shaped piezoelectric sensors.