Thermo-Piezo-Elastic analysis of beam structures using node-dependent kinematics one-dimensional models

This paper presents the use of refined beam models with node-dependent kinemat- ics for the accurate thermo-piezo-elastic analysis of beam structures. The models proposed are obtained by adopting the Carrera Unified Formulation, Equivalent Single Layer models and Layer-Wise models have been used to derive refined beam models with different kinematic descriptions from node to node in order to reach an optimal balance between accuracy and nu- merical solution costs.The present numerical models have been assessed using several results from literature and obtained using the commercial finite element codes. The assessed mod- els have then been used to analyze complex structures considering the effects of constant end variable thermal field. The piezoelectric material has been considered both in the case of an actuator as well as in the case of a sensor. The results show that the use of node-dependent kinematics models could lead to a reduction in the computational costs without a reduction in the accuracy of the results.