Quantitative determination of material viscoelasticity using a piezoelectric cantilever bimorph beam

The objective of this paper is to formulate the governing equation of a cantilever bimorph beam associated with a tip mass in contact with a viscoelastic material, which is modeled by a stiffness and a damper in parallel. From the eigenvalue problem, we can obtain the resonant frequencies as functions of the tip mass and material stiffness. The relation between the spectrum and material damping is established by the half-power bandwidth. It is found that the resonant frequencies increase as the material stiffness increases or the tip mass decreases, and the spectrum decreases by increasing the damping. From the analytic results, a cantilever could provide a technique to assess material viscoelasticity by simple measurements of the resonant frequency and the spectrum. Since the cantilever's behavior scales with its geometry, the device can be designed specifically for mechanical measurement of a microscopic system such as living cells and biomaterials.     

Generation of low-frequency vibration using a cantilever beam for calibration of accelerometers

At low frequencies (below 10 Hz), performance of a conventional shaker is limited by small acceleration amplitudes and a high level of total harmonic distortion. The present article describes a low-frequency vibration generator that overcomes these limitations. The vibration generator consists of a cantilever beam excited by a conventional shaker. The cantilever beam is tuned to resonate at the desired excitation frequency, which leads to a relatively large vibratory motion at the beam tip with very small harmonic distortion. Analysis of the system is performed by means of model equations describing both the flexural and longitudinal components of vibration. A comprehensive measurement of the generator's performance confirms that it can serve as an economically attractive alternative to existing low-frequency vibration generators used in vibration measurement and calibration.     

Bending analysis of a functionally graded piezoelectric cantilever beam

A new analysis based on Airy stress function method is presented for a functionally graded piezoelectric material cantilever beam. Assuming that the mechanical and electric properties of the material have the same variations along the thickness direction, a two-dimensional plane elasticity solution is obtained for the coupling electroelastic fields of the beam under different loadings. This solution will be useful in analyzing FGPM beam with arbitrary variations of material properties. The influences of the functionally graded material properties on the structural response of the beam subjected to different loads are also studied through numerical examples.     

Control of a rotating cantilever beam using a torque actuator and a distributed piezoelectric polymer actuator

A torque actuator and a distributed piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) actuator are utilized for control of a rotating cantilever flexible beam. The torque control contains proportional and derivative (PD) feedback for rigid motion control and a PVDF actuator control for vibration damping. Unlike previous approaches in the literature in which the angular velocity feedback was utilized, in this study we propose to use the linear velocity feedback (L-type) in our controller design for feasible implementation and avoiding modal truncation. The stability of the system with the L-type control has been analyzed, using the concept of a virtual joint model. The advantage of the proposed scheme lies in easy implementation, avoidance of modal truncation, efficient suppression of the dominant mode of vibration, and allowing high-speed motions. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Active-passive vibration absorber of beam-cart-seesaw system with piezoelectric transducers

In contrast with fully controllable systems, a super articulated mechanical system (SAMS) is a controlled underactuated mechanical system in which the dimensions of the configuration space exceed the dimensions of the control input space. The objectives of the research are to develop a novel SAMS model which is called beam-cart-seesaw system, and renovate a novel approach for achieving a high performance active-passive piezoelectric vibration absorber for such system. The system consists of two mobile carts, which are coupled via rack and pinion mechanics to two parallel tracks mounted on pneumatic rodless cylinders. One cart carries an elastic beam, and the other cart acts as a counterbalance. One adjustable counterweight mass is also installed underneath the seesaw to serve as a passive damping mechanism to absorb impact and shock energy. The motion and control of a Bernoulli-Euler beam subjected to the modified cart/seesaw system are analyzed first. Moreover, gray relational grade is utilized to investigate the sensitivity of tuning the active proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller to achieve desired vibration suppression performance. Consequently, it is shown that the active-passive vibration absorber can not only provide passive damping, but can also enhance the active action authority. The proposed software/hardware platform can also be profitable for the standardization of laboratory equipment, as well as for the development of entertainment tools.     

Wind excited vibration of a square section cantilever beam in smooth flow

The self-excited oscillation of a flexible, square section, slender, cantilever beam in a uniform, smooth wind stream is examined experimentally and theoretically. The excitation was due to negative damping type aerodynamic forces and the amplitude was limited as forces became non-linear. Steady oscillations occurred only when a face was oriented less than 15 degrees to the free stream velocity. Theoretical solutions based on measured quasi-static air forces agreed qualitatively with the experimental results, but failed to predict some peculiar drop-off behavior observed in the experiment. Discrepancies were attributed to slight irregularities in the cross-section shape of the beam.     

Suppression of random vibration in flexible structures using a hybrid vibration absorber

A design method is proposed to suppress stationary random vibration in flexible structures using a hybrid vibration absorber (HVA). While the traditional vibration absorber can damp down the vibration mainly at the pre-tuned mode of the primary structure, active damping is generated by the proposed HVA to damp down all resonant modes of interest of the vibrating structure and the spatial average mean square motion of the vibrating structure can be minimized. Only one absorber and one feedback signal are required to achieve global vibration suppression of a flexible structure under stationary random excitation. A special pole-placement controller is designed such that all vibration modes of the flexible structures become critically damped. It is proved analytically that the proposed HVA damps the vibration of the entire structure instead of just the attachment point of the absorber. The proposed optimized HVA is tested on a beam structure and it shows a superior performance on global suppression of broadband vibration in comparison to other published designs of passive and hybrid vibration absorbers.     

Analytical study of an active piezoelectric absorber on vibration attenuation of a plate

The attenuation of the transverse vibration of a plate, subjected to a harmonic force, is studied. This goal can be achieved by using an active dynamic absorber. The active absorber is made of a pair of piezoelectric sheets, attached to both sides of the plate, and closed electric circuits. One piece of the piezoelectric material provides a sensor for detecting the motion of the plate. Another piece serves as an active dynamic absorber. The equations of motion of the composite plate, including the plate and the piezoelectric material, and the circuit equations of the sensor and the absorber are derived. The displacements of the plate and the currents in the circuits are calculated. The active absorber can successfully attenuate the vibration. The numerical results show that the proposed active absorber can offer more reduction than that using a passive absorber while the absorber is designed to suppress the resonance of a particular vibration mode. Moreover, the active absorber can also reduce the displacements corresponding to other uncontrolled modes. The effects of altering various parameters of the active absorber are studied and discussed.     

Vibration suppression of a cantilever beam using magnetically tuned-mass-damper

Eddy currents are induced by the movement of a conductor through a stationary magnetic field or a time varying magnetic field through a stationary conductor. These currents circulate in the conductive material and are dissipated, causing a repulsive force between the magnet and the conductor. These electromagnetic forces can be used to suppress the vibrations of a flexible structure. A tuned mass damper is a device mounted in structures to reduce the amplitude of mechanical vibrations and is one of the effective vibration suppression methods. In the present study, an improved concept of this tuned mass damper for the vibration suppression of structures is introduced. This concept consists of the classical tuned mass damper and an eddy current damping. The important advantages of this magnetically tuned mass damper are that it is relatively simple to apply, it does not require any electronic devices and external power, and it is effective on the vibration suppression. The proposed concept is designed for a cantilever beam and the analytical studies on the eddy current damping and its effects on the vibration suppression. To show the effectiveness of the proposed concept and verify the eddy current damping model, experiments on a cantilever beam are performed. It is found that the proposed concept could significantly increase the damping effect of the tuned mass damper even if not adequately tuned.     

Nonlinear vibration control and energy harvesting of a beam using a nonlinear energy sink and a piezoelectric device

This paper presents an optimal design for a system comprising a nonlinear energy sink (NES) and a piezoelectric-based vibration energy harvester attached to a free–free beam under shock excitation. The energy harvester is used for scavenging vibration energy dissipated by the NES. Grounded and ungrounded configurations are examined and the systems parameters are optimized globally to both maximize the dissipated energy by the NES and increase the harvested energy by piezoelectric element. A satisfactory amount of energy has been harvested as electric power in both configurations. The realization of nonlinear vibration control through one-way irreversible nonlinear energy pumping and optimizing the system parameters result in acquiring up to 78 percent dissipation of the grounded system energy.     

Harvesting base vibration energy by a piezoelectric inverted beam with pendulum

We proposed a two-degrees-of-freedom inverted piezoelectric beam with pendulum to promote the performance of vibration energy harvesting. This configuration is composed of an inverted elastic beam and a pendulum attached to its free end. The electromechanical equations governing the nonlinear system were derived. The harmonic balance method(HBM)is applied to solve the equation and the results prove that there exists a 1:3 super-harmonic resonance. The simulation results show that owing to the particular nonlinearity, there appears a special bending effect in the amplitude-frequency response, i.e., bending right for the first natural frequency and left for the second natural frequency, which is beneficial for harvesting vibration energy. The HBM results are verified by the entity simulations. Furthermore, over a relatively wide range of power spectral density, it could reach a dense jumping and give a dense high pulse voltage.     

Free vibration analysis of moderately thick asymmetric piezoelectric adaptive cantilever beams using the distributed transfer function approach

A semi-analytical distributed transfer function (DTF) approach is proposed for the free-vibration analysis of moderately thick cantilever beams with a single surface-bonded piezoelectric patch. The asymmetric piezoelectric adaptive structure is decomposed into three segments; the first and third segments are bare beam parts before and after the patch, while the second segment contains the beam part with attached piezoelectric patch bonded to its upper surface. The theoretical formulation assumes first-order shear deformation kinematics and linear electric potential through the patch thickness with an electrode equipotential physical condition, and uses the extended Hamilton?s principle to derive the equations of motion and electromechanical boundary conditions. The latter, together with the continuity and equilibrium conditions at the segments interfaces, are then transformed into a first-order state space equation that is solved using the DTF approach. The electrodes of the piezoelectric patch are considered either in short-circuit (SC) or open-circuit (OC); this leads to two free-vibration problems to be solved for the corresponding SC and OC frequencies, from which the Electro-Mechanical Coupling Coefficient (EMCC) is post-treated. Four benchmarks from the open literature are simulated in order to validate the proposed approach. Very satisfactory correlations are obtained for all examples with maximum errors less thank 5 percent in all results. For future reference, an additional benchmark is proposed to assess the influence of the patch-to-composite host width ratio on the effective modal EMCC. It was found that the latter is mode-dependent (as expected) and decreases with increasing the former.     

Autoparametric vibration absorber effect to reduce the first symmetric mode vibration of a curved beam/panel

This paper presents the implementation of autoparametric phenomena to reduce the symmetrical vibration of a curved beam/panel under external harmonic excitation. The internal energy transfer of a first symmetric mode into first anti-symmetric mode in a curved panel is one example of autoparametric vibration absorber effect. This is similar to the vibration energy transfer from the resonance of a primary structure to the resonance of a secondary spring–mass (tuned mass damper). The nonlinear response of a curved beam is analyzed using an equation with two modes, and a shaker test. The effect of different configurations of the curve beam/panel, including damping ratios and excitation levels, on the energy transfer of the first symmetric mode to the first anti-symmetric mode was studied.The conventional tuned mass damper (TMD) can reduce the resonance response by energy transfer using damping dissipation, whereas an autoparametric vibration absorber (AVA) can reduce the resonance response by energy transfer using parametric interaction. The results indicate that there is a non-absorption region in which vibration is amplified. For the AVA, the non-absorption region can be minimized by tuning the resonance frequency of the first anti-symmetric mode to half of the first symmetric mode resonance frequency using additional mass. No additional damping material is required for achieving sufficient vibration reduction. The AVA can maintain reliable performance in hot and corrosive environments where damping material cannot perform effectively. This paper presents the first successful experimental results of an autoparametric vibration absorption mechanism in a curved beam.     

PMD compensation using a fuzzy automatic polarization controller

A new first-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensation technique is experimentally demonstrated in a 2.5 Gbit/s optical transmission system. It achieves adaptive compensation over a wide range of differential group delay (DGD) values, since it does not try to compensate it, but to eliminate one of the principal states of polarization by means of a liquid crystal polarization controller and a polarizer. The PMD parameters of the received signal are measured in real time through its spectrum analysis, and used as the feedback signal in a fuzzy logic algorithm controlling the liquid crystal device. The algorithm achieves a response time faster than the PMD variations in real links, also featuring endless operation. Moreover, a deterministic compact PMD emulator has been implemented in order to test the PMD compensator system.     

弹性支撑双稳压电悬臂梁振动响应及能量采集研究

在分析了常规刚性支撑非线性能量采集系统的研究基础上,提出外部磁铁弹性支撑的结构设想,保证系统在低强度激励条件下也能处于双稳态振荡,提高机电能量转换效率.研究表明,对于强度变化的随机激励历程,弹性支撑非线性能量采集系统不需要实时调整磁铁间距,能够更好地迎合强度时刻变化的随机激励源,实现高效的机电能量转换.     

Free vibration control of smart composite beams using particle swarm optimized self-tuning fuzzy logic controller

This paper deals with active free vibrations control of smart composite beams using particle-swarm optimized self-tuning fuzzy logic controller. In order to improve the performance and robustness of the fuzzy logic controller, this paper proposes integration of self-tuning method, where scaling factors of the input variables in the fuzzy logic controller are adjusted via peak observer, with optimization of membership functions using the particle swarm optimization algorithm. The Mamdani and zero-order Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy inference methods are employed. In order to overcome stability problem, at the same time keeping advantages of the proposed self-tuning fuzzy logic controller, this controller is combined with the LQR making composite controller. Several numerical studies are provided for the cantilever composite beam for both single mode and multimodal cases. In the multimodal case, a large-scale system is decomposed into smaller subsystems in a parallel structure. In order to represent the efficiency of the proposed controller, obtained results are compared with the corresponding results in the cases of the optimized fuzzy logic controllers with constant scaling factors and linear quadratic regulator.     

窄带随机激励双稳压电悬臂梁响应机制与能量采集研究

具有中心频率的窄带随机振动是一种典型的环境振动,其振动特征与环境的变化密切相关.本文以双稳压电悬臂梁能量采集系统为研究对象,分析系统在不同磁铁间距下的等效线性固有频率特性,以带通滤波器输出一定带宽的窄带随机激励模拟环境振动,研究系统的响应和能量采集特征.研究表明,对于一定带宽的窄带随机激励,一方面系统始终存在一个固定的磁铁间距使其输出达到峰值,另一方面当激励中心频率在一定范围内变化时,系统还分别存在另外两个或一个不同磁铁间距也能使系统输出达到峰值,而且该峰值特性是系统在其等效线性固有频率处诱导双稳或单稳“共振”形成的.研究结果可为具有窄带随机激励特征的振动能量采集提供一定的理论和技术支持.