Active vibration control of a smart beam through piezoelectric actuation and laservibrometer sensing: simulation, design and experimental implementation

Abstract

A velocity feedback control system is evaluated in the active control of vibrations of asmart beam with a pair of surface mounted piezoelectric ceramic patches, and finiteelement (FE) model results are validated against measured ones. To this end, athree-layered smart beam FE model is utilized, where a partial layerwise theory and a fullycoupled electro-mechanical theory are considered for the formulation of the displacementfield and electric potential, respectively. Regarding the test rig, it consists of a cantileversmart aluminum beam with two piezoelectric patches mounted close to the clamped end.One of the piezoelectric patches is utilized to excite the beam while the other is utilized asan actuator in the feedback control loop. The control voltage applied to the actuator isproportional to the transverse velocity at the free end, which is measured by alaser vibrometer. First, the quasi-static actuation capacity of the piezoelectricpatches is evaluated. Next, the free and forced velocity responses to an initialdisplacement field and harmonic excitation are analyzed. The capacity to predictinstabilities and the accuracy of the FE model are demonstrated and the applicabilityand functionality of the velocity feedback vibration control system are discussed.