The influence of the initial stresses on Lamb wave dispersion in pre-stressed PZT/Metal/PZT sandwich plates

Within the scope of the plane-strain state, by utilizing the three-dimensional linearized theory of elastic waves in initially stressed piezoelectric and elastic materials, Lamb wave propagation and the influence of the initial stresses on this propagation in a sandwich plate with pre-stressed piezoelectric face and pre-stressed metal elastic core layers are investigated. Dispersion equations are derived for the extensional and flexural Lamb waves and, as a result of numerical solution to these equations, the corresponding dispersion curves for the first (fundamental) and second modes are constructed. Concrete numerical results are obtained for the cases where the face layers\' materials are PZT-2 or PZT-6B, but the material of the middle layer is Steel (St) or Aluminum (Al). Sandwich plates PZT-2/St/PZT-2, PZT-2/Al/PZT-2, PZT-6B/St/PZT-6B and PZT-6B/Al/PZT-6B are examined and the influence of the problem parameters such as piezoelectric and dielectric constants, layer thickness ratios and third order elastic constants of the St and Al on the effects of the initial stresses on the wave propagation velocity is studied.