Simultaneous Active Damping and Health Monitoring of Aircraft Panels

Abstract

This paper reports on an experimental implementation of active control methods using smart structures for the purpose of performing simultaneous health monitoring and active damping of panels characteristic of aircraft components. Here smart structures refers to the integrated use of piezoelectric actuators and fiber optic sensors as the measurement transducers and control actuators required to actively damp a panel and to provide health monitoring of its structural integrity. The experiments focus on a flat aluminum panel with fundamental structural frequency of range. The active damping performance will be designed to be work across a range of temperatures from 70° to 120° F. The health monitoring aspects are impedance based using frequencies in the kilohertz range to avoid interacting with the structural control that is targeted to include the first six or seven modes. Both theoretical considerations and experimental verification is given. The major goal here is to show experimentally that simultaneous control and monitoring is possible.