Simplified numerical modeling of 3D piezoelectric composite shells

Based on the variational asymptotic method (VAM), an engineering model for piezoelectric composite shell under mechanical and electronic loads was established in order to efficient analyze the nonlinear, one-way coupled piezoelectric problem. The 3D energy expressions based on the decomposition of rotation tensor (DRT) were deduced. The 3D shell model was decomposed into a 2D, nonlinear shell analysis and a linear analysis through the normal direction based on VAM. The approximate energy after dimensionality reduction was deduced and converted to a form of Reissner-Mindlin model. The 3D field recovery relations were provided to obtain accurate stress distribution through the thickness. The cylindrical bending example of 4-layer piezoelectric composite shell shows that the 3D stress field recovered by the variational asymptotic plate and shell analysis program (VAPAS) based on this theory agrees better with the exact results than those of first-order shear deformation theory (FOSDT) and classic laminated theory (CLT), indicating the validity of this model.