In this paper we present the results of a systematic theoretical and experimental investigation of the fundamental aspects of using piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWASs) to achieve embedded ultrasonics in thin-gage beam and plate structures. This investigation opens the path for systematic application of PWASs for in situ health monitoring. After a comprehensive review of the literature, w...

Emerging technologies in microsensing, microactuation, active airfoils, turbine blades, and large, lightweight, flexible space structures can benefit from piezoelectric actuators for active shape control. Piezoelectric materials develop strain under applied voltage which induces structural deflection. This article presents analytical models, FEM solution, and optimal shape control of composite ...

This paper presents the buckling analysis of the piezoelectric functionally graded material (FGM) rectangular plates subjected to non-uniformly distributed loads, heat and voltage based on the mesh-free method. A two-step solution procedure is implemented. The first step is to determine the pre-buckling stresses of the plates subjected to non-uniformly distributed loads. The second step is to s...

The aging of aerospace structures is a major current concern of civilian and military aircraft operators. Piezoelectric active sensors offer special opportunities for developing sensor arrays for in-situ health monitoring of aging aircraft fleet, because they are small, non-invasive, inexpensive and easily wired into sensor arrays. This paper presents work done on developing and utilizing piezo...

This paper describes design improvements of a friction reduction based tactile device, which yields to reduction of the supply power. We first evaluated the power consumption of four different plates. We found that a convenient design could cut the power losses down by 90%. To explain these changes we propose a modelling of the dielectric losses in the piezoelectric actuators and of the vibrati...

An exact solution is obtained for the three-dimensional deformations of simply supported laminated rectangular thick plates with embedded shear mode piezoelectric actuators, subjected to mechanical and electrical loading on the upper and lower surfaces. Each layer of the laminate is made of either an orthotropic elastic material or a piezoelectric material whose poling direction lies in the pla...