Properties of interfacial adhesion for vibration controllability of composite materials as smart structures

The performance of smart structures depends on the quality of the bonding along the interface between the main structure and the attached sensing and actuating elements. By using interfacial adhesives providing optimum bonding conditions between them, vibrational properties of the composite beams with attached sensor and actuator were investigated. Three different adhesives, i.e. ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate adhesive (type A), toughness and stiffness controlled epoxy adhesives (types B and C) were compared with each other. An optimal type adhesive was chosen, based on its mechanical and wetting properties. Under severe flexure loading condition, type C was found to be most suitable for the vibrational structure system, assuming that the composite beam/adhesive layer/PZT system can deform with the same curvature. In addition, type C adhesive can provide the optimized bonding for manufacturing the smart structure and transfer the elastic behavior precisely. In addition, the beam with type C adhesive provided the fastest response time for the vibration control. This means that the optimum bonding between composite beam and PZT was formed comparatively using this interfacial adhesive.