Advanced Non-Linear Modelling of the Electromechanical Effective Properties of Macro Fibre Composites and Design of a Directional Dynamic Actuation Device - MAFICOMECH

Coordinating Institution: CRP Henri Tudor
From: 01/02/2009
To: 31/01/2012
Budget: 587,000.00€
Contact(s): Nasser Houssein

Summary

The safe use of complex engineering structures can only be guaranteed when efficient means of damage assessment and vibration control are in place. This does require continuous active vibration and health monitoring capabilities using integrated sensing technology and autonomous damage assessment. The research proposed seeks to exploit properties of piezoelectric materials to develop a directional dynamic sensing and actuation devices.

Such devices would provide the means to determine the main components of vibration-induced strain within a structure, as well as to act upon individual strain components. The expected outcomes of this project are novel devices for active vibration control and damage detection. Experimental investigation will be carried throughout to the design and testing phases of the piezoelectric sensors and will be use to determine the parameters influencing their behaviour. A combined multiscale analytical, computational, and experimental approach guides the research plan.

This is shown schematically in figure below. The multi-axial sensor/actuator will sense/actuate/damp vibrations and noise at the length scale of the structure. Research will involve feedback and control, optimal sensor/actuator location and spatial distribution, as well as exploration of feedback techniques based on negative capacitance amplifiers. At the present, analytical and numerical studies to estimate the effective properties of piezocomposite devices was carried out, as well as the development of a theoretical framework for combining polarization- and mechanical-induced anisotropy to allow developing multi-axial sensors/actuators for vibration and noise control.

The Asymptotic Homogenization Technique has been applied to estimate the effective piezoelectric properties of piezocomposite devices. The results have been validated with Numerical Periodic Homogenization and analytical Uniform Field Methods. The Incremental Generalized Self Consistent Model has been also implemented on piezocomposite device. Moreover, an approach using micromechanics differential schemes to compute the effective properties of composite materials and their sensitivities in the same analysis is carried out. This approach may be very useful for composite materials optimization in material by design strategies. In term of design strategies, an investigation and analysis on new design of unidirectional actuators sensors was developed. The new design is able to measure individual strain component in specific direction on the structure. A numerical validation procedure of the new design will be developed in the future.

Refereed Scientific Publications

• H. Nasser, S. Belouettar, W. Zaki, Y. Koutsawa, F. Biscani. Effect of matrix properties on the overall piezoelectric constants of piezocomposite transducers. Submitted to Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures.
• Y. Koutsawa, S. Belouettar, A. Makradi, H. Nasser, Sensitivities of effective properties computed using micromechanics differential schemes and high-order Taylor series: application to piezo-polymer composites, Submitted to Mechanics Research Communications.

Other Publications ·

• Y. Koutsawa, F. Biscani, S. Belouettar, H. Nasser, E. Carrera. Multi-coating inhomogeneities approach for the effective thermo-electro-elastic properties of piezoelectric composite materials. Journal of Composite Structures 92 (2010) 964–972
• Y. Koutsawa, S. Belouettar, A. Makradi, S. Tiem, Generalization of the micromechanics multi-coating approach to coupled fields composite materials with eigenfields: effective properties, Submitted to Mechanics Research Communications.
• Y. Koutsawa, F. Biscani, S. Belouettar, H. Nasser, E. Carrera, Toward micromechanics of coupled fields materials containing functionally graded inhomogeneities: multi-coating approach, Submitted to Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures.