Development of local volume displacement sensors for vibrating plates

Abstract

Development of local volume displacement sensors is presented. This development supports the implementation of noise control techniques that are based on minimization of local volume displacements, velocities, or accelerations of a vibrating structure. In this paper, a general methodology for the development of local volume displacement sensors for vibrating plates using p_olyv_ynilid_ene f_luoride (PVDF) is presented. This methodology was verified experimentally for a clamped plate. The local volume displacement measured using a PVDF sensor matched the local volume displacement found using multiple accelerometer measurements. The resulting sensor spans the entire x-length of the plate and covers the width of the area of interest. The sensor is composed of several strips of PVDF whose width varies with x quadratically on the local area and linearly elsewhere. Design issues for a clamped plate, a simply supported plate and a plate with arbitrary boundary conditions are discussed along with a presentation of some sample sensor shapes.