OPTIMAL PLACEMENT OF PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATORS IN ADAPTIVE TRUSS STRUCTURES

In the design of actively controlled structures, the determination of the actuator locations is a very important issue. In order to find the optimal placements of piezoelectric acutators in adaptive truss struc tures, optimal placement strategies developed in conjunction with the independent modal space control method are used in this paper. For thi s purpose, a finite truss element is developed accounting for the piez oelectric actuators. By using this finite element, eigenvectors consis ting not only of nodal displacements but also of electric potentials a re computed. The optimization algorithm calculating the optimal actuat or placements makes use of the electric potentials to minimize the con trol effort. The minimization of the spillover energy into uncontrolle d modes is an additional objective which can be taken into account by the optimization procedure. The method is illustrated by numerical exa mples.