Postbuckling of shear deformable laminated plates with piezoelectric actuators under complex loading conditions

Abstract Postbuckling analysis is presented for a simply supported, shear deformable laminated plate with piezoelectric actuators subjected to the combined action of mechanical, electric and thermal loads. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the plate surface and through the plate thickness and the electric field is assumed to be the transverse component E Z only. The material properties are assumed to be independent of the temperature and the electric field. The governing equations of a laminated plate are based on Reddy's higher order shear deformation plate theory that includes thermo-piezoelectric effects. The initial geometric imperfection of the plate is taken into account. Two cases of the in-plane boundary conditions are considered. A perturbation technique is employed to determine buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect, symmetric cross-ply and antisymmetric angle-ply laminated plates with fully covered or embedded piezoelectric actuators under different sets of thermal and electric loading conditions. The effects played by temperature rise, applied voltage, the character of in-plane boundary conditions, transverse shear deformation, plate aspect ratio, fiber orientation and stacking sequence as well as initial geometric imperfections are studied.