Electro-elastic stresses in composite active beams with functionally graded layer

Analytical expressions have been derived for the through thickness stresses of a composite active FGM beam subjected to electrical excitation. The structure is comprised of a substrate, an electro-elastically graded layer and an active layer. Continuous gradation of the volume fraction in the FGM layer is modelled in the form of an mth power polynomial of the coordinate axis in thickness direction of the beam. A numerical scheme of discretizing the continuous FGM layer (in sub-layers) and treating the beam as a discretely graded structure has also been developed. Appropriate expressions for the solution have been derived for the case of continuous power law gradation (mth power) of the FGM layer. The discretized FGM layer scheme has been shown to yield results that practically match those predicted analytically by the closed-form model.