Piezoceramic d15 shear-induced direct torsion actuation mechanism: a new representative experimental benchmark

A new piezoceramic d(15) shear-induced torsion actuation mechanism representative benchmark is proposed and its experimentations and corresponding 3D finite element (FE) simulations are conducted. For this purpose, a long and thin smart sandwich cantilever beam is dimensioned and built so that it can be used later for either validating analytical Saint Venant-type solutions or for analyzing arm or blade-based smart structures and systems applications. The sandwich beam core is formed by two adjacent rows of 8 oppositely axially polarized d15 shear piezoceramic patches, and its faces are dimensionally identical and made of the same glass fiber reinforced polymer composite material. Quasi-static and static experimentations were made using a point laser sensor and a scanning laser vibrometer, while the 3D FE simulations were conducted using the commercial software ABAQUS (R). The measured transverse deflection by both sensors showed strong nonlinear and hysteretic (static only) variation with the actuation voltage, which cannot be caught by the linear 3D FE simulations.