Zhao-Bo Chen

Vibration control of beams with active constrained layer damping

An analytical methodology is presented to study the active vibration control of beams treated with active constrained layer damping (ACLD). This analytical method is based on the conventional theory of structural dynamics. The process of deriving equations is precise and easy to understand. Hamiltons principle with the Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to derive the equation of motion of the beam/ACLD system. By applying an appropriate external control voltage to activate the piezoelectric constraining layer, a negative velocity feedback control strategy is employed to obtain the active damping and effective vibration control. From the numerical results it is seen that the damping performances of the beam can be significantly improved by the ACLD treatment. With the increase of the control gain, the active damping characteristics are also increased. By equally dividing one ACLD patch into two and properly distributing them on the beam, one can obtain better active vibration control results than for the beam with one ACLD patch. The analytical method presented in this paper can be effectively extended to other kinds of structures.

Distributed actuation characteristics of clamped-free conical shells using diagonal piezoelectric actuators

In spacecraft, severe vibrations induced by the launch vehicle may cause damage to the precision payload. Therefore active adapters with vibration suspending characteristics are needed. This paper presents theoretical studies of the active vibration control characteristics of conical shells with laminated piezoelectric actuators. A diagonal piezoelectric actuator is proposed to control the axial, lateral and transverse vibrations of the conical shell. Modal functions are designed to represent the free vibrations of the conical shell with clamped-free boundary conditions. General formulae of the modal control force and corresponding components are derived based on the converse piezoelectric effects and then specified for the diagonal actuators. By using an open-loop control method, the modal control characteristics of diagonal actuator segments at different locations are investigated and compared, and the axial, lateral and transverse vibrations of two conical shell models are evaluated. The optimal locations of actuator segments for the control of different natural modes are also investigated.

Design and experiments of a novel magneto-rheological damper featuring bifold flow mode

This study presents design and fabrication of a novel magneto-rheological (MR) damper with bifold flow mode gap to improve damping performance. The proposed MR damper is featured by inner flow mode gap connected to the outer flow mode gap through the feedback hole. A mathematical model of the damping force is established for the proposed MR damper and the magnetic circuit has been analyzed with the finite element method, which is used to validate the principle of the proposed MR damper. A conventional MR damper is fabricated with the same dimensions (radius, length) of the piston and is experimentally compared to confirm advantages of the proposed MR damper. The mechanical performance of the proposed MR damper is experimentally investigated and compared with the results by mathematical model and finite element analysis. The research results show that the controllable damping force and equivalent damping of the MR damper with bifold flow mode gap are much larger than those of the conventional MR damper.

Experiment on Active Vibration Isolation of a Conical Shell Isolator

Conical shells have advantages such as light weight, higher stiffness and strength, its stiffness ratio between axial and transverse directions can be easily adjusted by changing its apex angle. Thus conical shell can be utilized as an isolator to protect precision payloads and equipment from severe dynamic loads. In this study, vibration isolation performance of a conical shell isolator laminated with piezoelectric actuators is investigated. The conical shell isolator is manufactured from epoxy resin. The payload is at the minor of the isolator. The major end of the isolator is fixed at a flange installed on a shaker. Macro fiber composite (MFC) is used as actuator, which is laminated on the outer surface of the conical isolator. The sensing signals from sensors on the isolator is transferred to a dSPACE system and the control voltage is transferred to a power amplifier and then to the MFC actuator. The control voltage is calculated in the Matlab/Simulink environment. Both negative velocity feedback and optimal controllers are employed in the active vibration control. The payloads are simplified to be a rigid cylinder, and two payloads with different weight are investigated in the study. Experimental results show that the proposed conical shell isolator is effective for vibration isolation of payloads, and vibration amplitude of the payload can be significantly reduced.Copyright

Optimal Control of Clamped-Free Conical Shell Using Diagonal Piezoelectric Sensor and Actuator

In this paper, optimal vibration control of a clamped-free conical shell is presented. A diagonal piezoelectric sensor/actuator (S/A) pair is proposed to control the axial, bending and transverse vibrations of the conical shell. The modal functions are adapted to satisfy the clamped-free boundary condition. Based on the independent modal control method, the response of conical shell to external excitations can be represented by the summation of all participating natural modes and their respective modal participation factors and each mode can be controlled independently. The modal equation is transformed into the linear state space form. The modal participation factor and its time derivative are chosen to be the state variables. The sensing signals are chosen to be the output vector. The modal force is chosen to be the control input vector. The linear quadratic (LQ) controllers are designed for each independent mode. The optimal gain matrix is related to the ratio between control voltage and sensing signal by the modal control force per unit voltage and the sensing signal. Numerical examples show that, the proposed optimal control method can achieve significant active control effects and the optimal gains are mainly related to the modal velocity. This effect varies with the locations of S/A pair and the mode of the shell. The results indicate that, to achieve the best control effects for all wanted modes, the optimal controller and the optimization of the S/A location should be taken into account in the design of the optimal controller.Copyright

Corrigendum to ‘Vibration control of beams with active constrained layer damping’

This note corrects two errors in our previous paper ( Li et al 2008 Smart Mater. Struct. 17 065036) in which the active vibration control of beams treated with active constrained layer damping (ACLD) was studied analytically. The equation of motion of the whole beam/ACLD system is deduced again using Hamiltons principle with the Rayleigh–Ritz method. Numerical results are recalculated and conclusions similar to those of Li et al ( 2008 Smart Mater. Struct. 17 065036) can also be drawn.

Distributed Sensing Signals of Truncated Conical Shells With Clamped-Free Boundary Conditions

In aerospace structures, vehicles, civil structures, conical shells are used to support a part or connect different parts, such as spacecraft adaptors, fixtures of machine tools. This type of structures has the possibility of vibration isolation. The final purpose of the on-going research is to isolate the supported part from the vibration transferred from the other end. As a phase of the research, the present paper emphasizes on the distributed sensing signals and modal voltages of the truncated conical shell. To simulate free vibrations of supported part, one end of the truncated conical shell is clamped and the other end is free. The piezoelectric patches are attached on top skin of the shell along diagonal helical line. This paper presents an analytical procedure of sensing of truncated conical shell supporting a mass. The displacement functions satisfying the special boundary conditions are given. Based on the thin-shell theory and Donnel-Mushtari-Valsov theory, sensing equations of the piezoelectric stripes are derived. The sensing signals consist of four components, i.e. sensing signals due to meridional and circular membrane strains, meridional and circular bending strains. These components are studied separately to show their distributions to the sensing signals. Finally, a case study is carried out using a sample truncated conical shell model with laminated piezoelectric stripes.Copyright