An Application of Graphene Composites for Additional Damping of Vibrations of Smart Structures Based on Piezoelectric Elements

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a modified version of smart structures, which are the piecewise homogeneous bodies, incorporating elements made of elastic and viscoelastic materials and piezoelectric elements, whose electrodes can be connected to shunting circuits. One of the main intentions of such structures is the damping of vibrations. The focus of this study is to investigate the possibility of fitting smart structures with shunt circuits, in which the element made of a graphene composite behaves not only as a deformable solid but also as a resistor. A mathematical formulation of the problems of natural vibrations and forced steady-state vibrations is developed. The results of numerical experiments show that graphene-based composites can be used as an additional mechanism for damping vibrations in smart structures with attached piezoelectric elements.