2009 Second International Conference on Environmental and Computer Science

Control of vibration suppression of a smart beam by

pizoelectric elements
Aydin Azizi, Laaleh Durali, Farid Parvari Rad, Shahin Zareie
Department of mechanical engineering, Sharif University of technology, Kish Island, Iran
azizi@kish.sharif.edu, Durali_laaleh@kish.sharif.edu, f.parvarirad@yahoo.com, zareie_shahin@kish.sharif.edu
Active beam structure composed of conventional beam
integrated with smart materials to serves as actuator. Today,
active beam have found many application in modern industries,
as positioning tool, damping systems, active control,
proportional valves, active wing, etc.

Abstract Vibration control is an essential problem in different

structure. Smart material can make a structure smart, adaptive
and self-controlling so they are effective in active vibration
control. Piezoelectric elements can be used as sensors and
actuators in flexible structures for sensing and actuating
purposes. In this paper we use PZT elements as sensors and
actuator to control the vibration of a cantilever beam. Also we
study the effect of different types of controller on vibration.

II.

Keywords: Piezoelectric; PZT sensor; PZT actuator; Vibration

control; cantilever beam

I.

FURMULATION

We use finite element method for solving this project. Each

element has 2 degree of freedom at each nodal point which are,
a transverse deflection, an angle of rotation or slop and an
electrical degree of freedom as the voltage. When voltage
(control input) is applied to the actuator, counteracting moment
will be induced by the piezoelectric actuators at each nodal
point. The elemental mass and stiffness matrixes of the
piezoelectric element Mp and Kp are shown as: (1)

INTRODUCTION

A smart structure is basically a distributed parameter

system that employs sensors and actuators at different finite
element locations on the beam and makes use of one or more
microprocessors that analyze the response obtained from the
sensor and use different control logics to command the
actuators to apply localized strains to plant to response in a
desired fashion and bring the system to equilibrium. Smart
structure are used to alert system characteristics (such as
stiffness and damping) as well as of the system response (such
as strain and shape) in a controlled manner [1]. Te main
objective of active vibration control is to reduce the vibration
of a system by automatic modification of the system's
structural response and this process is shown in Fig.2 [1].

And: (2)

The sensor voltage is: (3)

Figure 1. Block diagrammatic view of a smart structure

This sensor voltage is given as input to the controller and

the output of the controller is the controller gain multiplied by
s
the sensor voltage V (t ) . Thus the input voltage to the
actuatorV

(t ) , i.e., the control input u is given by

V a (t ) =u= Controller gain * V s (t ) (4)

Figure 2. concept of reduction of vibrations using AVC

Aydin Azizi
Tel: +98 914 141 6821
E-mail: azizi@kish.sharif.edu

978-0-7695-3937-9/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/ICECS.2009.83

165

A. Dynamic equation of smart structure

The mass and stiffness matrixes M and K of the dynamic
equation of the smart structure include the sensor / actuator
mass and stiffness. The equation of motion of the smart
structure and sensor output is
M q + K q = f e x t + f c tr l = f
(5 )
s
T
y ( t ) = V ( t ) = p q

hT = E p d31bz[1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0](81) (6)

III.

We suppose a cantilever with 4 element which the sensor

and actuator are located at the same place in second element as
shown in Fig 3.

when q , q , f ext , f ctrl , f , p are the vector of

displacements and slopes, the acceleration vector, the external
force vector, the controlling forc3e vector, the total force vector
and a constant vector of the beam. If we use transformation
q = T g we will have:

actuator

T T MTg + T T KTg = T T f ext + T T f ctrl = T T f t

(6)
M * g + K * g = f *ext + f *ctrl
T
T
Which M * = T MT , K * = T KT are called the

sensor
Figure 3. Finite element model of the beam

generalized mass and stiffness matrixes. The structural modal

damping matrixes C * is

C * = M * + K *

PROBLEM

In our project we want to find free response of the beam to

an initial condition. Also we design a suitable controller to
control vibration of the beam.

(7)

Where and are the frictional damping constant and

the structural damping constant used in C * .The dynamic
equation and the sensor output of the smart structure is

B.Properties of the beam

Properties of the flexible cantilever and the piezoelectric
element when beam is divided to 4 finite elements are shown in
table1.

M * g + C * g + K * g = f *ext + f *ctrl

(8)
s
T
T
y (t ) = V (t ) = p q = p Tg

Table1. Physical parameter of problem

The SISO state space model of the smart flexible cantilever

beam for the first two vibratory modes is

Physical
parameters

Cantilever beam

Piezoelectric(PZT):
sensor/ actuator

Length(m)

lb=0.3(m)

lp =0.075(m)

Width(m)

b=0.03(m)

b=0.03(m)

Thickness(m)

tb =0.5(mm)

ts = ta=0.35(mm)

Density(kg/m3)

b=8030(Kg/m3)

p=7700(Kg/m3)

(11)

Young's
modulus(GPa)

Eb=193.06(Gpa)

Ep=68(Gpa)

C T = 0 p T T
(14)

Damping
constants used in
C*

=0.001

(12)

D =0

(13)

x = Ax ( t ) + Bu ( t ) + Er ( t )
(9)
T
y (t ) = C x ( y ) + Du ( t )
With

0
I

A =
(10)

1
1
M * K * M * C * (44)
0

B =

1 T
M * T h (41)

E =

1 T
M * T f

(14)

And

pT = Gce31zb[0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0](81) (15)

166

=0.0001

PZT strain
constant

d31=12510-12 (V/m)

PZT stress
constant

g31=10.510-3 VmN-1

IV.

RESULTS

0
1
0
0

0
(16)
0
0
1

A=
886.27 1.0994e 009 0.089627
1.0994e 013

29703 1.0869e 013 2.9713

1.0869e 009

In the following sections results of our program will be

discussed.
1.Mode shapes of vibration
In the following figures first and second modes of vibration
are shown. If we want to have smoother shape we should
increase number of elements

B=
0.00026746

0.00024886

C = [0

(17)

0.020777 0.18826]
D= [0]

(18)
(19)

3.Controlled vibration
Now we design suitable controller for our system and
compare response of the beam with controller with free
vibration.

Figure 4. First mode of vibration of cantilever

Figure 5. Second mode of vibration

Figure 7. Free and controlled vibration of cantilever with P-controller

2.Free response of vibration

In this section we find free response of the beam to an
initial condition x 0 = 0.01( m ) .

The state space model of system with P-controller is

0
0
0
0
A=
886.3
1.099e 009

1.087e
009

2.97e + 004

1
0
0.2841
0.181

B=
0.00026746

0.00024886

C = [0

Figure 6. Free response of the cantilever

0.020777 0.18826]

D= [0]
Also if we design a PI-controller we have

The state space model of the system is:

167

0
1 (20)
1.762

1.332

(21)

(22)
(23)

Figure 10. Forced response with sinusoidal input

Figure 8. Vibration of cantilever with PI-controller

In the following figures we find the P-controller response

of the beam to random and sinusoidal input.

Its state space is

0

A=
886.3

1.087e 009

0
1.099e 009

0
0.2008

2.97e + 004

0.1034

0.01039

0.0002675 (24)

2.034
0.0002489

0.09413
0
0

1
1.007

B = 0.00026746

0.00024886

0
C = [ 0 0 0.020777 0.18826

(25)

0] (26)

D= [0]

Figure 11. Vibration of the cantilever to random input for P-controller

(27)

4.Force response of vibration

Here we find the response of the beam to a random and
sinusoidal input.

Figure 12. Vibration of the cantilever to sinusoidal input for P-controller

Figure 9. Forced response with random input

5.Velocity
We can plot the velocity of beam which is shown in fig.12.

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Figure 15. Free and controlled vibration of the cantilever with P-controller

VI.

REFRENCES

[1]. Bandyopadhyay, B., Manjunath, T.C. & Umapathy, M.

2007, Modeling, control and implementation of smart
structures, Springer, Germany.
[2]. Reddy, J.N.1993, An introduction to the finite element
method, McGraw-Hill international editions, Singapore..

Figure 13. Velocity of the cantilever with P-controller

6.Sensor voltage
In this section we show the sensor voltage for free vibration
and P-controller.

Figure 14. Sensor voltage for P-controller

V.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

In this paper we study how smart materials can be used to

control the vibration of a beam. PZT is used as sensor and
actuator at the same place; however they can attach to different
places. As we see in fig.7 damping time of cantilever for free
response is quite large. If we change damping constant used in
C* ( , ), the structure will be damped faster. This claim is

shown in fig.15 for = 0.01 ,

= 0.001 .

169