Use of thickness-shear mode in adaptive sandwich structures

A new adaptive sandwich structure is constructed using the shear mode of piezoelectric materials. A comparative study of the sandwich structure and the corresponding surface-mounted actuation structure is performed using finite-element analysis. The effects of actuator length and location on actuation performance of the structures are studied. The stress distributions under mechanical and electrical loads are investigated for both the sandwich beam and the surface-mounted actuation beam. It is shown that the stress level within the actuators is more severe for the surface-mounted actuation beam than for the sandwich. Also, the interface-stress distribution between actuator and host structure is analysed. It is shown that sandwich construction offers many advantages over conventional surface-mounted actuation constructions.