Damping Behavior of Semi-passive Vibration Control using Shunted Piezoelectric Materials

Piezoelectric transducers in conjunction with appropriate electric networks can be used as mechanical energy dissipation devices. Semi-passive vibration control devices using nonlinear methods have experienced significant development in recent years, due to their performance and advantages compared with passive and active techniques. More precisely, synchronized switch damping (SSD) and derived techniques, which have been developed in the field of piezoelectric damping, lead to a very good trade-off between simplicity, required power supply, and performance. This technique consists of nonlinear processing of the piezoelement voltage which induces an increase in electromechanical energy conversion. The control law consists of triggering the inverting switch on each extremum of voltage (or displacement). The purpose of this study is the experimental observation of piezoelement damping sensitivity to variations of amplitude and frequency of excitation force. In addition, the effect of the size of piezoelement area on the vibration damping in high and low values of these parameters has been studied using SSDI method. The proposed method for switching sequence is based on statistical evaluation of the structural deflection.