Probabilistic-Based Nonlinear Progressive Failure Analysis of Piezoelectric Laminated Composite Shell Panels in Hygrothermal Environment.

Nonlinear progressive failure analysis (PFA) of piezolaminated composite shell panel under mechanical out-of-plane loading in the hygro-thermal environment is performed. The higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) with von-Karman nonlinear kinematics are used for basic formulation. Using variational principle governing equation for panel structure obtained by Newton's Raphson approach through finite element method is employed to compute the necessary PFA. The second-order perturbation technique (SOPT) is utilized to obtain statistics in terms of mean and corresponding coefficient of variance (COV) of first ply and last ply failure load (FPFL and LPFL) through ply-by-ply failure counting by assuming random input system parameters. Convergence and validation analysis is performed to check the exactness of MATLAB version 2013a code. Shell panels are subjected to environmental conditions with uniform temperature and moisture distribution over entire shell panels. Initially, the paper presents the response of the composite plate and shell with the application of uniformly distributed flexural loading in the form of transverse central deflection (TCD) and mean FPFL and LPFL using a deterministic approach. Then, statistics in terms of mean and corresponding COV of FPFL and LPFL are obtained using a probabilistic approach through PFA. The effect of thickness and aspect ratio, types of loading, lamination sequences, curvatures, temperature increment, moisture content, the position of piezoelectric layers, and voltage variation on statistics of PFA has been examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]