Modal effective electromechanical coupling coefficient of shear-mode piezoceramic sandwich cantilevers with segmented multicore: Experimental and numerical assessments

Smart sandwich cantilevers with aluminum faces and single and double cores, formed by assembled shear-mode piezoceramic patches with same poling, are experimentally and numerically assessed for the first time. To measure the electromechanical coupling efficiency of such vibrating smart structures, the so-called modal effective electromechanical coupling coefficient is used as a performance indicator. Hence, it is first experimentally analyzed under different electric connections (short circuit, open circuit, series wiring, and parallel wiring) of the patches’ electrodes; then, it is numerically investigated for models with different refinements (equipotential constraints and bonding adhesives) using ABAQUS® three-dimensional finite element simulations. It is found that the experimental modal effective electromechanical coupling coefficient is low for the smart shear-mode piezoceramic single core sandwich but can be increased using multilayer designs, as confirmed by the smart shear-mode piezoceramic double core sandwich. Numerically, it is found that the electric connection has less influence on the modal effective electromechanical coupling coefficient evaluation than the equipotential constraints and adhesives modeling, in particular for the smart shear double core sandwich. The proposed two benchmarks can be used by the research community of smart structures, systems, and devices for validating new shear-mode response-based theories and numerical models or designing related engineering applications, such as shunted damping, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, resonators, and filters.