Viscoelastic damping contributions to dynamic piezo-electric responses

In a previous paper, the authors formulated and evaluated the general nonlinear 3-D large deformation theory of anisotropic nonhomogeneous piezo-electrothermo-viscoelasticity including thermal expansion, curing and aging effects. For linear materials and small deformations, a piezoelastic/piezo-viscoelastic analogy was established in terms of integral Fourier and Laplace transforms. These developments are used in the present paper to evaluate the dynamic interactions between viscoelastic material damping and piezoelectric effects on voltage generation and structural control. A cantilever beam with piezoelectric upper and lower surface strips is chosen as a vehicle for such sensitivity analyses. The model has three distinct viscoelastic properties, namely the beam itself, the strip rigidity and a viscoelastic-emf constitutive relation. It is shown that either stabilizing or destabilizing effects can be achieved depending on the phase relations of the three viscoelastic responses.