Abaqus Implementation of a Corotational Piezoelectric 3-Node Shell Element With Drilling Degree of Freedom

Abstract

Integration of classical, passive structures and active elements based on multi-functional materials resulted in a novel structural concept denoted as active structures. The new structural systems are characterized by self-sensing and actuation. Coupling the two distinctive features by means of a controller enables a number of exquisite functionalities such as vibration suppression, noise attenuation, shape control, structural health monitoring, etc. Reliable, accurate and highly efficient modeling tools are an important ingredient of the active structure design. This paper addresses the Abaqus implementation of a recently developed piezoelectric 3-node shell element. The element uses co-rotational formulation to cover geometric nonlinearities. Special techniques are used to address the issues originating from low-order interpolation functions. The discrete shear gap is used to resolve the shear locking, while the assumed natural deviatoric strain technique improves the membrane behavior. Examples are computed in Abaqus upon implementation of the developed element.

A New C0 Third-Order Shear Deformation Theory for the Nonlinear Free Vibration Analysis of Stiffened Functionally Graded Plates

“…to improve stiffness of the structures. Many different ways are applied to analyzing plate structures in general as well as stiffened plate structures in particular; they are listed as Rayleigh-Ritz method [1], finite difference method [2,3], finite element method (FEM) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], constraint method [16,17], mesh-free method [18][19][20], semi analytical finite defference method [21,22], finite strip method [23][24][25], boundary element method [26,27], integral transform approach [28], etc. The most important issue of this type of structure is the connection between the plate and the stiffeners.…”

Theoretical and Experimental Study of a Thermo-Mechanical Model of a Shape Memory Alloy Actuator Considering Minor Hystereses

“…Their main property is due to the presence of a physical phenomenonchange of their crystal structure from a low-temperature martensite structure to a hightemperature austenite structure under the influence of temperature, which leads to the return of their original length if previously extended. The compactness, noiselessness and the large, developed force concerning their volume make SMA wires suitable for actuators in various MEMS devices [4] and robot mechanisms, and besides the piezoelectric based devices [5,6] they are an excellent candidate for applications in smart structures.…”

An efficient three-node triangular Mindlin–Reissner flat shell element

“…Finite element method is an efficient approach for numerical analysis of shell structures. Over last decades, a number of studies have been done to develop an efficient shell element with simple formulation [1][2][3]. There are three types of shell element that can be employed in shell analysis: (1) flat shell element which is formed by superposition of membrane and plate bending elements; (2) degenerated shell element which is formulated based on solid-shell theory; and (3) curved shell element which is defined based on classical shell theory.…”