Electromechanical tailoring of structure with periodic piezoelectric circuitry

In this paper, we study the integration of piezoelectric transducers and electrical circuitry onto a mechanical host structure to form an electromechanical periodic system. This scheme enables us to take advantage of the unique wave propagation characteristics of spatially periodic systems and thus manipulate the energy flow/distribution in the host mechanical structure. Different from most previous investigations where spatial periodicity is typically due to the periodic discontinuities in the mechanical structure, in the proposed scheme the mechanical structure can remain to be continuous without being altered. Instead, the electrical circuitry consists of periodic branches which, when coupled to the mechanical structure through the piezoelectric transducers, yields repetitive subsystems in the electromechanical integrated system. The circuitry elements can be online tunable, effectively making the energy manipulation adaptive to excitation variations. A transfer matrix-based approach is adopted in the dynamic analysis of the integrated system, where each subsystem is represented by two state vectors with a transfer matrix relating them. Given the repetitive nature of the subsystems due to periodicity, analysis on the entire system is conducted by focusing on one single subsystem. Systematic analysis is carried out to demonstrate the characteristics of wave propagation and attenuation in terms of propagation constants as well as the mechanical and electrical responses. Effects of circuitry tuning are also discussed through detailed parametric studies. Implications and potential applications of the proposed scheme are illustrated.