A novel smart hybrid‐Trefftz finite element for smart laminated composite plates

Abstract

A novel smart hybrid-Trefftz finite element (HTFE) has been developed for the analysis of smart laminated composite plates. The substrates of the smart plates are symmetric and antisymmetric cross-ply plates. The derivation of this HTFE is devoid of the complicated task of finding the particular solutions of simultaneous governing partial differential equations. The Trefftz functions are constructed from the finite number of free-field exact solutions of the homogeneous simultaneous governing partial differential equations of the element domain in a straightforward manner without transforming them into a single governing equation. The HTFE is validated with the exact solutions of the smart composite plates. It is observed that this HTFE is an efficient finite element and can be utilized for the analysis of active control of smart composite structures. KEYWORDS composites, finite element methods, smart materialsInt J Numer Methods Eng. 2019;120:707-726.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nme