An investigation of the electromechanical coupling and broadband shunt damping in composite plates with integrated piezo-patches

Abstract

The popularity of laminated composite plate-like structures is increasing in various engineering applications. Piezoelectric patches with electrical circuit elements can be integrated into these structures for shunt damping applications. For analyzing the shunt damping performance of these systems, precise modeling tools are required, which consider the two-way electromechanical coupling between the piezo-patches and the host plate. This study aims to identify the system parameters which affect the electromechanical coupling coefficient, a metric for measuring the effectiveness of mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion. For that purpose, a thorough investigation is performed to determine the critical system parameters and their combined effects on the electromechanical coupling coefficient of laminated composite plates with surface-bonded piezo-patches. First, the first four natural frequencies of the electromechanical system are obtained using the Rayleigh–Ritz method for various patch sizes. Then, the electromechanical coupling coefficient variations for a different set of system parameters are presented. Later, to demonstrate the applicability of the developed methodology for a broader frequency range, four independently shunted piezo-pairs are attached to the plate. The contours of electromechanical coupling coefficient values with respect to ply angle and patch-pair size are presented for the first four modes. Finally, the vibration amplitudes are successfully reduced for these modes using the optimal system parameters.