This book describes the active vibration control techniques which have been developed to suppress excessive vibrations of structures. It covers the fundamental principles of active control methods and their applications and shows how active vibration control techniques have replaced traditional passive vibration control. The book includes coverage of dynamic modeling, control design, sensing methodology, actuator mechanism and electronic circuit design, and the implementation of control algorithms via digital controllers. An in-depth approach has been taken to describe the modeling of structures for control design, the development of control algorithms suitable for structural control, and the implementation of control algorithms by means of Simulink block diagrams or C language. Details of currently available actuators and sensors and electronic circuits for signal conditioning and filtering have been provided based on the most recent advances in the field. The book is used as a textbook for students and a reference for researchers who are interested in studying cutting-edge technology. It will be a valuable resource for academic and industrial researchers and professionals involved in the design and manufacture of active vibration controllers for structures in a wide variety of fields and industries including the automotive, rail, aerospace, and civil engineering sectors.

What follows is my personal perspective on early events that played a signi?cant role in the formation of the ?eld now known as Smart Structures. It is by no means meant to be all inclusive or de?nitive in any way, but merely an account of personal experiences that ultimately lead to the development of the material contained and presented herein. On March 23, 1983 then President Ronald Reagan announced his intentions to develop a new system to reduce the threat of nuclear attack and end the strategy of mutual deterrence in an address to the nation entitled, Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security. The system he proposed became known as “Star Wars,” after the popular movie, because it was meant to provide a protective shield over the nation from space. His speech mobilized the entire nation on a research and development path toward this end. Investigations were conducted into new areas such as space based radar, large aperture antennae and large ?exible mirror concepts. These proposed systems r- resented an entirely new class of structures that proved to provide new challenges in materials, structures, control systems and modeling. For example antennae needed to monitor large areas of real estate in the continental United States required ap- tures on the order of 100 m.

This book documents the state-of-the-art evaluation of the embryonic field of multifunctional materials and adaptive structures, more specifically in the area of active vibration suppression, shape control, noise attenuation, structural health monitoring, smart machines and micro-electro-mechanical systems with application in aircraft, aerospace, automobile, civil structures and consumer industry.

This book presents an overview over smart structures - its concepts, its active involvement in the vibration control, their applications and the extensive research work done.

Synthesizing knowledge acquired as a result of significant research and development over recent years, Smart Structures clearly illustrates why these structures are of such intense current interest. Gaudenzi offers valuable insight into both how they behave and how and at what cost they could be designed and produced for real life applications in cutting edge fields such as vibration control, shape morphing, structural health monitoring and energy transduction. Smart Structures offers a basic and fundamental description of smart structures from the physical, mathematical and engineering viewpoint. It explains the basic physics relating to the behaviour of active materials, gives the mathematical background behind the phenomena, and provides tools for numerical simulation. It also offers an insight into considerations related to the manufacturing, assembly and integration of smart structures. Smart Structures is divided into 5 sections: in the first part a definition of smart structures is proposed, the motivation for developing a smart structure presented and the basic physics of active materials such aspiezoelectrics, electrostrictives, magnetostrictives and shape memory alloys briefly recalled. A second part is devoted to the mathematical modelling of piezoelectric bodies. The third part discusses actuation and sensing mechanisms based on which the active part of a smart structure will produce “results” on the passive one. The fourth part deals with active composites at the micromechanical and macromechanical level, and the fifth part is devoted to applications of smart structures with examples taken from the aerospace field. This introduction to smart structures will be useful both for structural and mechanical designers, and for students and researchers at graduate level or beyond. The diverse industries involved in this rapidly evolving field include aerospace, automotive and bioengineering.

Introductory text on the analysis and design of smart devices and structures.

This book focuses on smart materials and structures, which are also referred to as intelligent, adaptive, active, sensory, and metamorphic. The ultimate goal is to develop biologically inspired multifunctional materials with the capability to adapt their structural characteristics, monitor their health condition, perform self-diagnosis and self-repair, morph their shape, and undergo significant controlled motion.