Dynamic response of piezoelectric smart beam with adhesive debonding

The ability of piezoelectric (PZT) materials to transform mechanical energy to electrical energy and vice versa has made them applicable for varieties of applications including sensors and actuators. Some of the structural health monitoring techniques, such as acoustic emission, electromechanical impedance, and wave propagation, make use of PZT patches in either active or passive means to interact with the host structure. PZT patches are mostly surface bonded to the host structure using suitable adhesives. This paper presents the effect of debond in both actuating and sensing mode on the displacement and electric potential for partially debonded smart cantilever beam. A three-layer 3D finite element model is developed for this purpose. Dynamic analysis is performed to study the effect of debonding on transient as well as frequency response. The variation in tip displacement as well as induced electric potential seen in the case of partial debond reveals that the process of debonding is complex-coupled electromechanical behaviour. The results also emphasize the importance of considering the adhesive bonding layer in the numerical models, mainly when the high-frequency dynamic response is of interest. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.