COUPLED ELECTROMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF ADAPTIVE MATERIAL SYSTEMS - DETERMINATION OF THE ACTUATOR POWER-CONSUMPTION AND SYSTEM ENERGY-TRANSFER (REPRINTED FROM JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT MATERIAL SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES, VOL 5, PG 12-20, 1994)

This article presents a coupled electro-mechanical analysis of piezoel ectric ceramic (PZT) actuators integrated in mechanical systems to det ermine the actuator power consumption and energy transfer in the elect ro-mechanical systems. For a material system with integrated PZT actua tors, the power consumed by the PZT actuators consists of two parts: t he energy used to drive the system, which is dissipated in terms of he at as a result of the structural damping, and energy dissipated by the PZT actuators themselves because of their dielectric loss and interna l damping. The coupled analysis presented herein uses a simple model, a PZT actuator-driven one-degree-of-freedom spring-mass-damper system, to illustrate the methodology used to determine the actuator power co nsumption and energy flow in the coupled electro-mechanical systems. T his method can be applied to more complicated mechanical structures or systems, such as a fluid-loaded shell for active structural acoustic control. The determination of the actuator power consumption can be ve ry important in the design and application of intelligent material sys tems and structures and of particular relevance to designs that must b e optimized to reduce mass and energy consumption.