A three-dimensional numerical model for delaminations, transverse crack or debonding in composite sandwich plates with piezoelectric sensors

An Extended Layerwise/Solid-Element (XLW/SE) method is developed based on the Extended Layerwise method (XLWM) and eight-node solid element method for the static analysis of damaged composite sandwich structures with piezoelectric sensor. In this method, the XLWM is used to model the facesheets and piezoelectric sensors, and the eight-node solid element is used for the lattice. Based on the equilibrium conditions of displacement and internal force of the overlapped joints at the facesheet/sensors and facesheet/lattice interfaces, the general governing equation is established. In the numerical examples, the proposed method is verified by comparing with the 3D elasticity model developed in the commercial finite element software, and composite sandwich plates with delamination and/or transverse crack and/or debonding are analyzed.