Active control of plate vibration by discrete PVDF actuator and sensor segments

The active control of vibrations is considered to be a key technology of the next decades in the international research community. Most concepts of active vibration control (AVC) use strain inducing piezoelectric ceramics, e.g. zirconate titanate (PZT), to generate forces or moments. In this paper an alternative concept based on segmented PVDF-actuators is proposed. The piezoelectric polymer PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) provides great flexibility by its installation on a host structure and avoids negative changes of the passive properties. To create the necessary bending moments PVDF-actuators have to be attached in large patches. A segmentation of the patches leads to variable actuator areas. Adapting the actuator areas by an actuator management system (AMS) to the excited mode shape of the host structure results in a quasi modal actuator design. The actuator management system is combined with a modal filter technique in order to implement an on-line measurement of the modal participation factor and a feedback control loop. Experimental tests with a plane aluminum plate validate the proposed concept.