I wish to use the element removal and activation technique on piezoelectric elements; however, this procedure is currently not supported for piezoelectric elements in Abaqus. Does anyone know of any other technique that I can use to achieve the same thing as the element removal and activation procedure? 

Essentially, I wish to remove at the start of the analysis a set of piezoelectric elements that are bonded (tie constraint) to a unsymmetric lay-up composite flat plate, carry out a static general analysis where the plate has a negative change in temperature applied to it causing the plate to deform into a curved state, then reactivate the piezoelectric elements in a following static general step such that they are in an annealed state (zero stress, strain, etc.). Thank you for any help you can provide.