Discrete material optimization of vibrating composite plate and attached piezoelectric fiber composite patch

This work deals with the layout optimization of piezoelectric fiber composite patches on a vibrating laminated composite plate and the discrete material design of the composite plate. The vibration of the composite plate is excited by an external mechanical loading, and a sinusoidal voltage with given amplitude and frequency is applied on the piezoelectric fiber composite patches. The analysis of the composite structure with piezoelectric fiber composite patches is performed via a finite element method in condensed form, where the piezoelectric effects are considered as induced force. As a view to minimize the dynamic response of the vibrating laminated composite structure, the Discrete Material Optimization method is employed to perform the design optimization of piezoelectric fiber composite patches and the stacking sequence, fiber angles, and selection of material for the composite structure. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.