INVERSE TRANSIENT THERMOELASTIC PROBLEM FOR A COMPOSITE CIRCULAR DISK

The present article deals with the application of a piezoelectric material as a sensor of thermomechanical disturbance. We consider a composite circular disk constructed of a transversely isotropic layer onto which a piezoceramic layer of crystal class 6mm is perfectly bonded. An inverse transient thermoelastic problem is solved to determine the unknown transient heating temperature distribution on the surface of the transversely isotropic layer, when the distribution of the electric potential difference across the piezoceramic layer is known. A finite difference method with respect to the time variable is employed to solve this inverse problem. The thermoelastic fields in the transversely isotropic and piezoceramic layers are analyzed by means of a transversely isotropic potential function method and a piezothermoelastic potential function method, respectively. Numerical results are presented for the time variation of the inferred heating temperature distribution and the corresponding distributions of temperature, displacements, stresses, and electric displacements.