The prospect of using active damping in a smart structure to suppress
thermally induced vibration is investigated. Here smart structure refe
rs to an aluminum structure with an integrated active control system c
onsisting of piezoceramic sensors and actuators. A simply supported al
uminum beam is used to illustrate the nature of thermally induced vibr
ations caused by a suddenly applied heat flux. A distributed piezoelec
tric self-sensing sensor/actuator pair is implemented to actively supp
ress the motion caused by thermal disturbances. The effect of large te
mperature changes on the structure and actuator are taken into account
in the control system design. A proportional-derivative controller, a
linear quadratic regulator and a positive position feedback filter ar
e considered. Simulation results show that thermally induced vibration
s can be damped using currently available smart structure technology,
provided temperature effects are properly accounted for in the control
law.