An experimental study on dynamic analysis and active vibration control of smart laminated plates

Abstract

Dynamic analysis and active vibration suppression of smart plates is presented in this work. An experimental set-up has been developed to carry out experimentation. The setup is composed of a specimen laminated composite plate, a data acquisition device, signal conditioning elements, a LabView based controller and cables/wires for electrical connections. Experiments are performed with laminated plates of different layups. Aluminium, polycarbonate and medium density polyethylene sheets are used as layup materials. Tensile tests are performed to determine the mechanical properties of the constituting material layers. Piezoelectric patches integrated with elastic layers of specimen plate are used as sensor and actuator pair. The open and closed loop responses are obtained for each specimen plate and the fundamental frequencies are determined experimentally. The closed loop responses are obtained using PID controller configured in LabVIEW graphical program. The experimental results have demonstrated the validity and efficiency of PID controller in active vibration control of smart structures. The problem plates are also modelled using ANSYS workbench for modal analysis. The experimental results of fundamental natural frequencies of specimen plates are validated through ANSYS finite element results. The results are in good agreement and thus can be used as a touchstone for analytical/numerical work.