FE Modeling of an Innovative Vibration Control Shunt Technique

Abstract

The possibility of simulating and predicting the dynamic behavior of controlled structural systems is a challenging goal because of the complexity of the related architectures. As a matter of fact, obtaining accurate information on system response in pre-design and design phases may reduce both computational and experimental efforts. In this study, the numerical simulation of a specific family of semi-active vibration control devices is taken into account: piezoelectric acting in the synchronized switched shunt architecture (SSSA). Different from the classic shunt inductive architecture, the SSSA is characterized by a switch component adaptively synchronized with the structural response to be controlled, whatever it is. The ability of controlling low range frequencies without large limitations in terms of inductive components represents, together with the adaptive skill, the main advantage of this technique. The reference structure is represented by an isotropic plate, clamped on the edges; the active system is made of an isolated PZT patch, located at the center. A dedicated simulation tool has been realized and implemented to predict piezo effectiveness for the considered configuration. Related matrices have been suitably integrated within the complete model. The switching state of the electrical circuit causes the matrices elements to be time-variant; the related problems have been dealt with in a Newmark-Beta-based integration solver. The integrated structural system has been fully and simultaneously simulated, considering at the same time the structural dynamics, the nonlinear behavior of the electrical device, and the piezoelectric electromechanical response. Results have been presented in terms of time response. The innovative contribution reported in this study concerns the application of the FE approach to the design of a SSSA integrated within MDOF structural systems. A characteristic of the approach is the ability of interacting with commercial FE codes, like MSC-Nastran, in designing and simulating the SSSA control action. References reported in this study face the SSSA control problem applied to single DOF systems (not directly applicable to complex systems, but through modal analysis reduction operations) or deal with FE simulation of classical inductive shunt (not switched). The details of this statement are fully reported in the Introduction.