Modeling of thick anisotropic composite triclinic piezoelectric shell transducer laminates

Integrating artificial sensors and actuators with an elastic structural system enhances the structure's sensation, action, reaction, and control capability. The authors' work is concerned with a new theory on thick anisotropic composite piezoelectric shell transducer laminates. The laminate is made of n layer triclinic piezoelectric laminae; with appropriate definitions of the material properties, each lamina can be used as either sensor, actuator self-sensing actuator, or structural component. In addition, the theory is derived based on a triclinic piezoelectric material. Depending on material symmetries and orientation, this theory can be applied to a variety of composite piezoelectric (or piezoelectric/elastic) structures and geometries. Application examples are discussed.