An assembled plate active control damping set-up:: Optimization and control

This paper is concerned with active structural control by using the independent modal strategy control (IMSC). Distributed sensors and actuators are of PZT ceramics or PVDF polymer. The structure under study consists of three shaped plates which are soldered. To build the control loop, the modal filtering concept is introduced in order to extract in real time the modal variables of the controlled modes. This is possible by introducing a numerical method to optimize shape and location of the sensors and actuators on the structure and to minimize the effects of the unwanted modes. Experimental identification of the structure model is then handled and compared to that obtained from a finite element analysis. The impedance problem between sensors and the acquisition system is solved and the output signal, in staircase form, of the DSP card is smoothed by analog filtering. Two kinds of modal control (the IMSControl and Time-Sharing) are tested. Both of them are stable and robust and give often to the damping ratios structure studied, ten times greater. (C) 1999 Academic Press.