Reducing stress concentration factor around a hole on a plate by piezoelectric patch

Using piezoelectric patches the stress concentration around a hole on a plate under tension is reduced and controlled. To attain the reduction in stress two placements for piezoelectric patches is investigated. The first location is top/bottom of the hole with compression induced strain and the second is left/right of the hole with tension induced strains to control the stress flow. The result for two above condition is presented for host plate and piezoelectric patches and by comparing the results the advantages of locating the piezoelectric patches to control the stress flow in the host plate is investigated. The results show that locating the piezoelectric patches at left/right of the hole, to control the stress flow and stress concentration is more effective than locating them at the top/bottom of the hole.