Stability and free vibration analysis of thick piezoelectric composite plates using spline finite strip method

In the present study, a spline finite strip with higher-order shear deformation is formulated for stability and free vibration analysis of piezoelectric composite plates. At each knot, the electric potentials on the surfaces and middle plane of each piezoelectric layer are taken as nodal degrees of freedom. However, if a continuous electrode is installed on the surface of the layer, the electric potential on the electrode is changed to structural degree of freedom, so that the equipotential condition on the electrode is automatically satisfied. The analysis can be conducted based on Reddy's third-order shear deformation theory, Touratier's “Sine” model, Afaq's exponential model or Cho's higher-order zigzag laminate theory. Consequently, the shear correction coefficients are not required in the analysis, and an improved accuracy for thick plates over the first-order shear deformation theory is achieved at only little extra computational cost.The numerical results obtained based on different shear deformation theories are presented in comparison with the three-dimensional solutions. The effects of length-to-thickness ratio, fiber orientation, boundary conditions and electrical conditions on the natural frequency and critical buckling load of piezoelectric composite plates are investigated through numerical examples.