Thermally induced vibration control of composite plates and shells with piezoelectric activedamping

Abstract

A coupled piezoelectric field is modelled with an expansion strain in the numericalformulation to analyse piezohygrothermoelastic laminated plates and shells. Finite elementactuator and sensor equations are derived using a nine-noded field consistent shallow shellelement. Thermally induced vibration control is attempted using piezoelectricallydeveloped active damping. The influence of piezoelectric anisotropy on active damping isevaluated, adopting a simple modelling technique. With 40% reduced actuation capabilityin the lateral direction, the directionally active lamina is observed to be equally efficient incontrolling the vibration. In general, the directionally active lamina is efficient ifthe primary actuation direction is oriented along the fibre direction or in thedirection of bending. The directional actuation appeared to be more effective inthe velocity feedback control for cantilevered plates and shells. However, in thesimply supported case, a balanced actuation effort is required to provide bettercontrollability, which can be achieved by tailoring the directional actuation. Theimportance of geometric curvature for the actuator performance is also highlighted.