Hygro-Thermo-Electro-Mechanical Coupled Modeling of Laminated Curved Panels

The manuscript presents a generalized two-dimensional model for evaluating the stationary hygro-thermo-mechanical response of laminated shell structures made of heterogeneous piezoelectric composite materials with thermal and hygrometric properties. In particular, the static bending response of these structures is studied, along with their coupled hygro-thermo-electrical behavior. A generalized kinematic model is introduced, enabling the assessment of arbitrary temperature and mass concentration variations with respect to the unvaried configuration at the top and bottom surfaces. This is achieved through an Equivalent Layer-Wise description of the unknown field variables using higher order polynomials and zigzag functions. Furthermore, an elastic foundation is modelled according to the Winkler-Pasternak theory. The fundamental equations, derived from the total free energy of the system, are solved analytically using Navier’s method. Then, the Fourier-based generalized differential quadrature numerical method is adopted to efficiently recover the through-the-thickness distribution of secondary variables, in agreement with the hygro-thermal loading conditions. The formulation is applied in some examples of investigation where the response of panels with different curvatures and lamination schemes is evaluated under external hygro-thermal fluxes and prescribed values of temperature and moisture concentration. In addition, we investigate the effect of the hygro-thermal coupling due to Dufour and Soret effect. The present formulation is verified to be a valuable tool for assessing the mechanical response of laminated structures in a thermal and hygrometric environment with reduced computational effort.