Classical and Advanced Computational Plate/Shell Models for Piezoelectric Laminated Structures E. Carrera, S. Brischetto & M. Cinefra Aerospace Department, Politecnico di Torino, Italy ABSTRACT : This lectures is devoted to advanced computational models for multilayered plate/shell structures embedding piezoelectric layers as sensor/actuators. The hierarchical modelling is obtained by referring to the Carrera Unified Formulation which permits the development of equivalent single-layer and layer-wise theories based on classical and mixed variational statements. The need of layer-wise analysis is pointed out as well as the convenience to refer to mixed variational statements to evaluate transverse mechanical and electrical variables without any post-processing. Mostly an overview of the recent work co-authored by the first author is given. The results have been obtained by running an in-house software recently named MUL2. 1 INTRODUCTION Smart systems are the candidate for next generation structures of aerospace vehicles as well as for some advanced products of automotive and ship industries. Piezoelectric ma- terials are the most used in that framework. These materials are characterized by the so called ’direct’ and ’inverse effect’: an applied electrical potential induces mechanical stresses and vice-versa. Such an electro-mechanical coupling permits one to build up closed-loop control systems in which piezo-materials play the role of both actuators and sensors. An intelligent structure can be therefore built in which, for instance, deforma- tions or vibrations are reduced by appropriate control laws [1]. In many of the recent applications, piezoelectric layers are employed in conjunction with composites layered structures. A smart structure is in this case obtained by embed- ding piezo-layers (sensors and/or actuators) in a multilayered one. Among the various open problems of smart structures such as material capabilities, optimum design, control algorithm, this work is direct to modelling of plate/shell structures. Accurate evaluation of electrical and mechanical variables is, in fact, a crucial point for appropriate use smart structures. It is a well known, see [2], [3], [4], that classical theories, that were originally developed for traditional plates and shells for pure mechanical-problems, can lead to large errors when applied to multilayered cases embedding piezolayers. This is mainly due to the following features: 1. layers exhibit different electro-mechanical material properties which make feasible quasi three-dimensional mechanical/electrical fields; 2. a strong cou- pling can occur between mechanical and electrical fields; 3. piezoelectric materials are often introduced as localized patches. An efficient description of the above three points require amendments to those plate/shell theories that were originally introduced for pure mechanical problems and structures made by isotropic materials. No effective control, in fact, can be build unless accurate evaluation of electrical (voltage, electric field, charge) and mechanical (displacement,