Influence of viscoelastic interfaces on power transmission through an elastic plate by finite piezoelectric transducers

A finite elastic plate, partially covered by piezoelectric patches on two sides to periodically charge or recharge electronic devices operating in a sealed armor, is considered to study the effects of a viscoelastic interface on the resonant frequency, transformation ratio, efficiency, displacement and stress distributions of the structure. Based on the shear-slip model, we apply the Fourier series method to analyze the symmetric thickness-twist modes of the system containing an imperfect viscoelastic interface. An examination of the numerical results confirms the good convergence and high precision of the Fourier series method. If an appropriate thickness ratio is chosen, the energy-trapping phenomenon is well presented. The numerical results also reveal that the transformation ratio, efficiency and displacement of the system decrease for weaker interfaces, whereas the resonant frequency is not sensitive to interface damping parameters. This result could provide a theoretical guide to design high-performance piezoelectric plate transformers.