Conical shells are widely used in aerospace engineering, such as for rocket fairings, satellite-rocket joints, load-bearing structures of solid rocket motor cases, and so on. In this study, the truncated conical shell with a flexoelectric actuator was discussed, and the precision flexoelectric actuation and control effectiveness were evaluated. A flexoelectric patch covered with an electrode layer was attached to the external surface of an elastic truncated conical shell, and a line electrode was longitudinally attached to the external surface of the patch. When a control voltage was applied to the line electrode and the electrode layer, an inhomogeneous electric field was generated; consequently, the stresses were induced in the flexoelectric patch due to the converse flexoelectric effect, thus regulating the vibration of the conical shell. The dynamic model of the truncated conical shell with a flexoelectric actuator was established. Then, the actuation effects of the flexoelectric actuator on the conical shell were investigated in terms of the microscopic behaviors, that is, flexoelectric-induced stresses, membrane control forces, bending control moments, and modal forces. Furthermore, the influences of several design parameters (that is, the line-electrode radius, conical shell thickness, flexoelectric patch thickness, and conical shell half-apex angle) on the flexoelectric actuation behaviors were also investigated.
The converse flexoelectric effect can be utilized to actuate and control flexible structures. Assessing the precision flexoelectric actuation and control effectiveness of cylindrical shells is the main objective of this study. The application of voltage to the line electrode on the external surface of a flexoelectric patch, coupled with the bottom surface electrode layer, causes an inhomogeneous electric field to be generated, which consequently induces internal actuation stresses. The stress-induced membrane control force and bending control moment generate modal control effects, which regulate the cylindrical shell vibration. For an elastic cylindrical shell with flexoelectric actuation, the modal forces and microscopic behaviors are studied to evaluate the flexoelectric actuation effects. For the transverse direction, the electric field gradient drops sharply with increasing distance from the line electrode; thus, the induced internal actuation stresses concentrate on the upper surface. Due to the inhomogeneous electric field gradient distributions, the membrane control force and bending control moment concentrate like spikes. To evaluate the actuation effects, modal force distributions of the elastic cylindrical shell with flexoelectric actuation are analyzed with respect to design parameters, such as the flexoelectric patch thickness, line-electrode radius, cylindrical shell thickness, and shell radius.
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