Vibration Control of Sandwich Plates

Abstract

This paper presents the active control of vibrations of sandwich plates using piezoelectric composites (PZC). The top surface of the plate is integrated with the patches of active constrained layer damping treatment. Active fiber composite, one of the commercially available PZCs, is used as the material of the constraining layer of the patches and the constrained layer of the patch is composed of a viscoelastic material. Considering the first order shear deformation theory individually for each layer of the sandwich plate, a three-dimensional finite element model has been developed. The performance of active fiber composite for the smart vibration control of the sandwich plates has been studied and numerical results are presented. Emphasis has also been placed on investigating the effect of variation of piezoelectric fiber orientation angle in the constraining layer on the control authority of the patches.