ACTIVE DAMPING OF THERMALLY-INDUCED VIBRATIONS

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.