Global bending analysis of corrugated sandwich panels with integrated piezoelectric layers

Smart corrugated sandwich panels are special types of sandwich panels which are well suited in advanced devices to provide not only high resistance capability against mechanical loads but also energy harvesting capacity for low power applications. In this paper, analytical solution for corrugated sandwich panels with embedded piezoelectric layers is presented by using three-dimensional theory of elasticity. Energy method in conjugation with homogenization approach is used to determine effective properties of corrugated cores in thickness direction. Due to extreme orthotropic nature of corrugated cores, this method can give an accurate solution by using state-space method. Accuracy of core properties is verified by comparing numerical results with previous investigations. Furthermore, reliability of presented method is guaranteed by comparing the results with finite element analysis. A comprehensive parametric study including influences of geometrical factors such as pitch, height, sheet thickness and corrugation shape is accomplished.