Minimum Deflection Design of Piezothermoelastic Laminated Composite Plates

The converse piezo effect is used to minimize the deflection of a given point for antisymmetrically laminated rectangular plates. The piezoelectric layers are bonded to the top and bottom surfaces of the laminate and are subjected to an electrical field. The deformation generated by the piezo effect counteracts the deflections induced by mechanical and/or thermal loads. Moreover, the ply angles can be used as additional design variables to minimize the deflection. In the numerical examples, the mid-point of the plate is specified as the point deflection of which is to be minimized. It is shown that, depending on the magnitudes of the mechanical and thermal loads, the deflection of this point can be reduced to zero by applying a certain voltage to piezoelectric layers.