Concept and model of a piezoelectric structural fiber for multifunctional composites

The use of piezoceramic materials for structural sensing and actuation is a fairly well developed practice that has found use in a wide variety of applications. However, just as advanced composites offer numerous benefits over traditional engineering materials for structural design, actuators that utilize the active properties of piezoelectric fibers can improve upon many of the limitations encountered when using monolithic piezoceramic devices. Several new piezoelectric fiber composites have been developed, however almost all studies have implemented these devices such that they are surface-bonded patches used for sensing or actuation. This paper will introduce a novel active piezoelectric structural fiber that can be laid up in a composite material to perform sensing and actuation, in addition to providing load bearing functionality. The sensing and actuation aspects of this multifunctional material will allow composites to be designed with numerous embedded functions including, structural health monitoring, power generation, vibration sensing and control, damping, and shape control through anisotropic actuation. A one-dimensional micromechanics model of the piezoelectric fiber will be developed to characterize the feasibility of constructing structural composite lamina with high piezoelectric coupling. The theoretical model will be validated through finite element (FE) modeling in ABAQUS. The results will show that the electromechanical coupling of a fiber-reinforced polymer composite incorporating the active structural fiber (ASF) could be more than 70% of the active constituent.