Gopalakrishnan Nair J., Sujatha C.

Active vibration control of flexible structures using discrete piezoelectric patches is an attractive area of research in field of smart structures. Such structures are commonly found in use in various fields of engineering such as aerospace, automobile engineering etc. The analysis of dynamic vibration capabilities of discrete piezoelectric patches located on a clamped thin square plate, intended for active vibration control is presented in this paper. Different layouts consisting five pair of piezoelectric patches, of fixed area, symmetrically located over the plate is considered. Harmonic analysis of the smart plate is done using ANSYS©. The response of the smart plate for a frequency range is obtained, for various locations of the pair of patches. The response is also obtained by varying the thickness of the piezoelectric patches used. The responses are overlaid on that of bare plate to see the effect on various modes of vibration. Plot of amplitude of response is obtained against location of patches, for different modes of vibration. The plots obtained are used to infer about the location which is possessing best vibration absorption capabilities for the mode considered. Plot of amplitude of response for varying thickness of patches, for a given area is also obtained to study the effect of patch thickness on dynamic vibration capabilities.