Development of SEM-Based PESEA Code for Modeling PZT Induced Acousto-Ultrasonic Waves Propagating in Metallic and Composite Structures

Abstract

This paper presents the development of 3D spectral element based PESEA (PZT Enabled Spectral Element Analysis) code to simulate PZT-induced acousto-ultrasonic wave propagation in metallic and composite structures. PESEA solves coupled electromechanical governing equations for a given arbitrary voltage input to a piezoelectric actuator and outputs voltage response of piezoelectric sensors. In case of modeling composites, one element per ply is computationally expensive and smeared material properties may give inaccurate results; hence a layered solid spectral element (SE) is introduced. This layered solid SE can model several plies per element and uses combined nodal quadrature and Simpson’s ⅓ integration rule to calculate mechanical stiffness matrix of each element. Rayleigh damping model is used to account for the viscoelastic nature of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminated composites.