Modeling of Plate Structures Equipped with Current Driven Electrostrictive Actuators for Active Vibration Control

The study here reported is focused on active vibration control applications performed on plate host structures equipped with electrostrictive patches. In such applications the design of controllers requires to simulate the behavior of the coupled structure. These simulations can then be performed through a Finite Element Method which implies the elaboration of electrostrictive finite elements. The purpose of the present paper is to use the electrostrictive plate finite element elaborated in a previous paper such as to simulate active vibration control of a cantilever beam equipped with current driven or voltage driven electrostrictive actuators. From these numerical results it is shown that a linear controller is as efficient as a nonlinear one in terms of vibration absorption, whatever the driving input used. An experimental implementation of the current driving input is moreover presented. Based on experimental measurements, it is proved that current driving electrostrictive actuators induce a decrease of electric energy consumption compared to a classical voltage driving input.