Vibration damping with active carbon fiber structures

This paper presents a mechatronic strategy for active reduction of vibrations on machine tool struts or car shafts. The active structure is built from a carbon fiber composite with embedded piezofiber actuators that are composed of piezopatches based on the Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) technology, licensed by NASA and produced by Smart Material GmbH in Dresden, Germany. The structure of these actuators allows separate or selectively combined bending and torsion, meaning that both bending and torsion vibrations can be actively absorbed. Initial simulation work was done with a finite element model (ANSYS). This paper describes how state space models are generated out of a structure based on the finite element model and how controller codes are integrated into finite element models for transient analysis and the model-based control design. Finally, it showcases initial experimental findings and provides an outlook for damping multi-mode resonances with a parallel combination of resonant controllers.