Analysis of Smart Plate Vibrations

The integration of laminated composites with piezoelectric materials to provide an active light weight smart structure has considerable practical interest. These light weight structures, however, are prone to excessive vibration due to poor natural damping and fatigue failure. There are number of methods for vibration reduction in structures. One of them is active vibration control which is drawing attention because of its being cost effective due to rapid development in electronic technologies. Wang et al [2001] have studied the vibration control of smart piezoelectric composite plates by formulating a smart eight nodded quadrilateral finite element. The piezoelectric layers are considered as plies with special properties into the active laminate and assumed that consistent deformations exist in the substrate and piezoelectric layers. This consistent methodology is followed here with high precision element.

The objective of this study is to develop an active damping matrix that can control the vibration. Actuator and sensor influence matrices are developed corresponding to piezoelectric material. The governing equations of motion are modified by including negative velocity feedback based control force. Finally, studies on the effect of piezoelectric patch distribution and control gain on vibration response are carried out.