Evaluation of piezoelectric active control systems for vibrations suppression

The paper describes in progress research activities aimed at verifying the possibility of designing active vibration control systems based on piezoelectric devices. In particular a wholly clamped rectangular flat panel is mechanically excited and controlled with piezoceramic patches. Vibrations reduction tests and then correlations with numerical predictions, based on an integrated piezostructural model, are presented. In this work only simple co-located direct feedback laws have been used to point out problems related to measurement conditioning circuits. Self sensing actuators have been also tested, the theoretical possibilities offered by this kind of devices being evident, but their actual implementation entails some practical problems. Encouraging results have been produced, confirming the possibilities of piezoelectric active control of thin panels. The correlation with numerical prediction shows that the adopted approach is capable of supplying a suitable design tool.