Piezoelectric beams under small strains but large displacements and rotations

•This work seems to be the first to obtain analytical solutions for beams under large rotations with piezoelectric sensors.•Small strains are consistently incorporated into a model to describe piezoelectric beams under large rotations.•Piezoelectric effects associated with severe geometric nonlinearities are discussed. Small strains are consistently incorporated into a model to describe the behavior of piezoelectric beams subjected to large displacements and rotations. While the displacement is assumed to vary in accordance with the Timoshenko assumption, the electric potential has linear variation through each piezoelectric layer thickness. The strong geometric nonlinear effect on the beam electroelastic response is illustrated by static problems of cantilever beams with tip loads and distributed sensing or actuation. The present work seems to be the first to obtain analytical solutions for beams under large displacements and rotations with piezoelectric sensors. One believes that the quality of such solutions can be valuable to validate results predicted by approximate methods.