MICRO-SENSING CHARACTERISTICS AND MODAL VOLTAGES OF LINEAR/NON-LINEAR TOROIDAL SHELLS

Toroidal shells belong to the shells of revolution family. Dynamic sensing signals and their distributed characteristics of spatially distributed sensors or neurons laminated on thin toroidal shell structures are investigated in this study. Spatially distributed modal voltages and signal patterns are related to the meridional and circumferential membrane/bending strains, based on the direct piezoelectricity, the Gauss theorem, the Maxwell principle and the open-circuit assumption; linear and non-linear toroidal shells are defined based on the thin shell theory and the von Karman geometric non-linearity. With the simplified mode shape functions defined by the Donnell–Mushtari–Vlasov theory, modal-dependent distributed signals and detailed signal components of spatially distributed sensors or neurons are defined and these signals are quantitatively illustrated. Signal distributions basically reveal distinct modal characteristics of toroidal shells. Parametric studies suggest that the dominating signal component results from the meridional membrane strains. Shell dimensions, materials, boundary conditions, natural modes, sensor locations/distributions/sizes, modal strain components, etc., all influence the spatially distributed modal voltages and signal generations.