| Abstract: |
This study presents a comprehensive finite element analysis (FEA) framework for smart structures integrated with piezoelectric sensors and actuators, aimed at enabling real-time structural health monitoring (SHM) using the ABAQUS simulation environment. Smart structures incorporating piezoelectric transducers such as PZT-5A and PVDF films have emerged as highly viable candidates for continuous damage detection in aerospace, civil, and mechanical engineering applications. The present investigation employs ABAQUS/Standard and ABAQUS/Explicit solvers to simulate Lamb wave propagation, modal frequency shifts, strain energy density distributions, and electromechanical coupling responses across five distinct damage scenarios on aluminium alloy and carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) substrates. A mesh convergence study involving five levels of mesh refinement from 1,200 to 52,000 elements confirmed numerical stability at a mesh density of 14,200 elements using C3D20R formulation. Damage indices (DI) derived from time-of-flight shifts, amplitude attenuation, and reflection coefficients demonstrated a statistically consistent classification accuracy ranging from 88.7% for critical damage to 99.2% for intact structural states. The FEA-predicted piezoelectric voltage outputs correlated strongly with experimental bench data, yielding R² values between 0.976 and 0.994 across all load cases, with percentage errors not exceeding 5.6%. The findings validate ABAQUS as a robust simulation platform for SHM-oriented smart structure design, and the proposed damage index classification framework offers a reliable, low-cost pre-experimental tool for sensor placement optimisation and damage severity assessment. |
