OPTIMAL PLACEMENT OF PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATORS AND SENSORS FOR SMART STRUCTURES

Optimization of smart structures and systems with respect to different criteria represents an important issue in the overall design procedure, due to possibility of significant savings through optimization. This paper considers the problem of optimal actuator and sensor placement for active large flexible structures, with respect to controllability and observability criteria. The proposed placement optimization method is based on balanced reduced models. It overcomes disadvantages arising from demanding numeric procedures related with high order structural models. Optimization procedure relies on H-2 and H-infinity norms, as well as on controllability and observability Gramians, related with structural eigenmodes of interest. The optimization procedure and its results are documented by several examples. A good agreement of the results determined based on different placement indices can be observed through the examples.