Simulation of wave propagation in damped composite structures with piezoelectric coupling

This paper presents an efficient and accurate simulation approach to shorten time and cost of the necessary pre-tests in the design process of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. The simulation is performed using the time domain spectral element method, which leads to an optimally concentrated mass matrix and results in a crucial reduction of complexity of the time integration algorithm. The theoretical background of the method and a spectral element for flat shells are presented. New approaches to incorporate the anisotropic material damping and an efficient coupling of piezoelectric elements within the spectral element framework are developed.

Some numerical calculations are performed showing both the accuracy of this methodology, by comparing to experimental values, and the applicability to more complex structures like stiffened curved panels.