Compensation of torsion in rods by piezoelectric actuation

This paper considers the compensation of torsional deformations in rods with the help of thin integrated piezoelectric actuator layers. A laminated orthotropic rod is considered, for which the material properties of each layer are assumed to be homogenous. For the sake of a generalization, the piezoelectric actuation is expressed in terms of eigenstrains. The main scope is the derivation of a distribution of eigenstrains that is able to completely compensate the angle of twist caused by external torsional moments. Saint Venant’s theory of torsion for laminated orthotropic rods is extended for the presence of eigenstrains, which is performed by introducing an additional warping function. It is shown that the actuating torsional moment is a function of the eigenstrains and the additional warping function. For the example of a rectangular cross section, an analytic solution for the actuating moment and the additional warping function is presented. The results are verified by three-dimensional finite-element computations showing a very good accordance with the theoretical results over a large parameter range.