Research on the actuation behavior of composite beam integrated with graphene-reinforced piezoelectric actuator

Owing to the excellent conductivity and physical properties, graphene can significantly enhance the piezoelectric and mechanical characteristics of the piezoelectric matrix. This article studies the actuation behavior of laminated composite beams integrated with a graphene-reinforced composite piezoelectric (GRCP) actuator. Structural deformations are achieved by interlaminar stresses at interfaces between the piezoelectric actuators and the composite beams. Interlaminar stresses cannot be neglected for the structural analysis of composite beams with a GRCP actuator. Composite beams actuated by GRCP actuators exhibit more complex interlaminar mechanical behavior than traditional composite beams. Existing higher-order shear deformation theories may lose the capability for the actuation behavior of composite beams with GRCP actuators subjected to electromechanical loadings. Thereby, an advanced theory is to be proposed for the actuation performance of GRCP actuators acting on composite beams. Differing from earlier higher-order theories, the proposed theory includes an electromechanical interlaminar shear stress field that can accurately describe the distributions of interlaminar shear stresses without any additional postprocessing procedures. Additionally, a three-node beam element is constructed in terms of the proposed theory. The three-dimensional elasticity solutions, two-dimensional finite element solutions, and the results calculated by the other theories are employed to evaluate the proposed beam theory. Numerical results show that the proposed electromechanical coupling beam model can produce promising results. Additionally, the impacts of significant parameters on the actuation performance of laminated beams with a GRCP actuator are thoroughly investigated.