Influence of Piezoelectric Fibre Orientation on the Snap-Through of Bistable Variable Stiffness Laminates

Abstract

Multistable structures have drawn significant attention in the control surface designs for various engineering applications in wind, aerospace, automobile and solar industries. The use of smart material controlled bistable composite laminates for morphing applications has received increased attention in recent years. One example of smart materials being utilised is the actuation of bistable composites morphing using macro-fibre composite (MFC) actuators. A bistable laminate-MFC assembly consisting of two MFCs attached to the bottom and top surface of a laminate is considered in the present study. To check the effect of piezoelectric fibre alignment in the actuation, a schematic parametric study is proposed within the numerical framework of commercially available finite element software, Abaqus™. A parametric study is performed by orienting MFC fibre at various angles with respect to laminate orientation. Results based on preliminary work show that rotating piezoelectric fibre alignments can lead to a reduction in snap-through voltage, which is useful in effective power consumption in morphing applications. It is also observed that rotating piezoelectric fibre alignment beyond a limit may disturb the bistability of unsymmetrical composite laminates. Further, the possibility of tailoring the snap-through voltages of the proposed laminate-MFC configuration is explored by replacing conventional cross-ply laminates with variable stiffness (VS) laminates generated from curvilinear fibre alignments. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.