RESEARCH ARTICLE


Application of Piezoelectric Materials on Repair of Delaminated Structures



Quan Wang*
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
0
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 133
Abstract HTML Views: 225
PDF Downloads: 154
Total Views/Downloads: 512
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 108
Abstract HTML Views: 168
PDF Downloads: 134
Total Views/Downloads: 410



Creative Commons License
© 2007 Quan Wang;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; E-mail: Q_Wang@Umanitoba.ca


Abstract

The potential of piezoelectric ceramics on repair of delaminated structures subjected to a static loading is researched in the letter. A sliding fracture mode on two tips of a delaminated beam structure was uncovered by the author in a previous report. The stress singularity due to the fracture mode at the tips is attempted to be mended with a pair of piezoelectric patches by virtue of their electro-mechanical characteristics. A developed mechanics model is employed to study the applicability of the piezoelectric materials in repairing four types of delaminated structures, i.e. simply supported, cantilevered, propped cantilevered, and fixed beams. The effectiveness of the proposed method is particularly investigated with respect to the locations of the delamination in both the thickness and longitudinal directions of the beams. It is hoped that the research findings in the letter will promote an application of smart materials to repair delaminated or cracked engineering structures.