A smart single-lap adhesive joint integrated with partially distributed piezoelectric patches

The powerful electro-mechanical coupling attribute of piezoelectric materials enables these materials to act as effective actuators. Using this attribute, a smart single-lap adhesive joint was developed by anti-symmetrically surface bonding piezoelectric patches onto a typical single-lap joint. The forces and bending moments at the edges of the developed smart joint can be adaptively controlled by adjusting the applied electric field in the piezoelectric patches, thus reducing the stress concentration in the joint edges. In order to further verify the effect of surface bonding of the piezoelectric patches, a first-order shear deformation theory based analytical model was developed to evaluate the stress distribution in the adhesive layer. It was established that the piezoelectric patched joint could significantly reduce the stress concentration in the joint edges. The influence of location and size of the piezoelectric patches was also investigated. Furthermore, the state-space method was used to obtain the analytical solution. A series of finite element analyses were also carried out to verify the integrity of the developed solution. Results from the computational analyses were in good agreement with those obtained from the proposed results, thus validating the solutions.