OPTIMIZATION OF ENERGY-DISSIPATION OF ACTIVE CONSTRAINED LAYER DAMPING TREATMENTS OF PLATES

The energy dissipation characteristics of Active Constrained Layer Dam ping (ACLD) treatments of plates is optimized using rational design pr ocedures. Such treatments of plates is optimized using rational design procedures. Such treatments consist of viscoelastic cores constrained by active piezo-electric layers. The optimal size and control gains o f these ACLD treatments are determined using a globally stable boundar y control strategy to control the strains of the active peizo-electric layers in response to the structural vibrations. The optimal paramete rs are obtained to maximize the sum of the passive and active loss coe fficients of the ACLD treatments. The effect of the viscoelastic loss factor as well as the aspect ratio and piezo-electrical anisotropy of the constraining layer on the performance and the optimal parameters o f the ACLD treatments is determined. Comparisons with optimal Passive Constrained Layer Damping (PCLD) indicate that the optimal ACLD is mor e effective in dissipating vibrational energy. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.