Design Approaches for Shaping Polyvinylidene Fluoride Sensors in Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC)

A design methodology is presented for shaping structural polyvinylidene fluoride sensors for active structural acoustic control applications. A structural PVDF sensor yielding a con trolled response equivalent to that obtained when implementing a microphone error sensor perpen dicular to the surface of a simply supported beam was designed and tested. In addition, the equiva lent PVDF sensor design approach for the simply supported plate is presented; however, practical limitations in achieving the desired three-dimensional polarization profile prevent physical imple mentation. Results from tests conducted on the simply supported beam demonstrate that PVDF structural sensors can be designed to achieve directional acoustic control of structure-borne sound. While this design approach is currently limited to structures whose response can be described as a function of one dimension, the potential for applications in more complex structures is readily achieved upon determining a practical method of varying the polarization profile of the material as a function of two dimensions.