A novel semi-active multi-modal vibration control law for a piezoceramic actuator

In this paper a novel semi-active energy rate multi-modal vibration control technique is developed for a piezoceramic actuator coupled to a switching resistor/inductor shunt. The technique works by briefly connecting a resistor/inductor shunt to a piezoceramic actuator in order to apply the necessary signed charge to allow energy dissipation. The switch timing is determined by a control scheme that observes the rate of energy change in controlled modes. The control scheme is developed in the paper and is simplified to enable practical implementation. This new multi-modal control law is applied to both a simple numerical and an experimental test structure. The results from the numerical and experimental tests show that the energy rate multi-mode control law is able to dissipate energy from one, two and three modes of the flexible structures using a single actuator.