A new method for determining locations of the piezoelectric sensor/actuator for vibration control of intelligent structures

A technique for determining the locations of piezoelectric sensors and actu ators (S/As) of intelligent structures on the basis of element sensitivitie s of the singular-values of the controllability and observability is presen ted. The element sensitivity of the singular-values is used as the measure to identify the best locations of S/As, which is defined from the 1st order perturbations of singular-values of the controllability and observability. A criterion and a threshold value are used to determine which actuator/sen sor elements need to be kept/removed based on the sensitivity information. Locations of S/As are determined as the point where the element sensitivity of the singular-values is the maximum. Two numerical examples, the cantile ver beam and the model of solar panels, are given to illustrate the applica tions of the present method.