Active vibration control system of smart structures based on FOS and ER actuator

An active vibration control system based on fiber optic sensor (FOS) and electrorheological (ER) actuator is established in this paper. A new intensity modulated fiber optic vibration sensor is developed following the face coupling theory. The experimental results show that this new type of intensity modulated fiber optic vibration sensor has higher sensitivity in measuring the vibration frequency. At the same time, experimental investigations are focused on evaluating the dynamic response characteristics of a beam fabricated with ER fluid. It is noted that the most significant change in the material properties of ER fluid is the change of material stiffness and damping which varies with the electric field intensity imposed upon the ER fluid. Finally, the structural vibration of the smart composite beam based on ER fluid, fiber optic sensor and piezoelectric transducer has been monitored and controlled actively utilizing a fuzzy-logic algorithm.