A semi-active shunted piezoelectric tuned-mass-damper for multi-modal vibration control of large flexible structures

A semi-active electromechanical Tuned Mass Damper (SATMD), which consists of a combined spring-piezoelectric device connected to an external resistive-inductive electric circuit is pre-sented, aiming to provide robust multi-modal vibration suppression capabilities in large flexible structures. The combined spring-piezoelectric device provides the stiffness for the resonant mass, and also electromechanical energy conversion and coupling. A reduced-ordered mode super-position structural dynamics model coupled with the SATMD device and the RL shunt electric circuit is formulated, to simulate the response of the integrated structural system. The broadband vibration reduction capabilities of the proposed SATMD are numerically and experimentally evaluated and quantified on a down-scaled simplified airframe model. Very good correlation between numerical and measured results is obtained. The results illustrate that a SATMD configuration with an auxiliary mass equal to 1% of the structural mass and combined resistive -inductive impedance, yields substantial simultaneous vibration suppression over the range of 3 low-frequency structural modes, and can be easily retuned to accommodate in-flight changes in structural and loading parameters.

Automated summary

This paper presents a semi-active electromechanical Tuned Mass Damper (SATMD) that provides robust multi-modal vibration suppression capabilities in large flexible structures. Numerical and experimental evaluations show that the proposed SATMD has effective vibration reduction capabilities in low-frequency range.