The actuated performance of multi-layer piezoelectric actuator in active vibration control of honeycomb sandwich panel

This paper discusses the use of the multi-layer piezoelectric actuator (MPA) in the active vibration control of the honeycomb sandwich panel (HSP). A literature overview of the available works is first presented. And the main motivation using the MPA in the AVC of HSP is discussed. Then, the honeycomb core is in advance treated as an orthotropic plate. The governing equations of the system are derived by the Hamilton principle on the basis of both displacement and transverse tress assumptions. The formulations of the actuation force/moment are obtained and indicate that the actuation force/moment are two four-order polynomial function of the piezoelectric layers number. Finally, active control experiments of a cantilever honeycomb sandwich panel (CHSP) are performed using the MPA. The control law of proportional velocity feedback is adopted in the experiments. These experiments include the resonant vibration control and the sinusoidal swept of the control system at the case of different piezoelectric layers number. The results show that the MPA can effectively control the vibration of the high damping HSP, and the control performance per voltage by the proposed actuator can be improved significantly through increasing the piezoelectric patch number. Consequently, the MPA exhibits better actuation capability than that with only single layer.