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This study investigates the use of macro-fiber composite (MFC) actuators to compensate thermal deformation in composite structures. The specific objective is to determine if MFC actuators bonded on the surface of a composite plate have the ability when actuated to counteract thermally induced deformations. Both finite-element analyses and experiments are presented. First, the response of an aluminum plate and a unidirectional composite plate both subjected to a MFC actuator is predicted. Next, the response of an unsymmetric composite plate with two MFC actuators bonded on the surface is studied. In the first step, a uniform temperature change is applied which induces a large change in the structure shape due to the laminate's unsymmetric nature. In the second step, the MFCs are actuated to compensate the thermally induced distortion. The results show that MFC actuators can eliminate thermal deformations when a proper amount of voltage is applied. Finally, a series of experiments are conducted to study the piezoelectric effects and provide data to compare with the finite-element results. Correlation between experiments and simulations is excellent.

The paper investigates the use of Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuators to actively control thermally induced deformations in composite structures. Numerical and experimental results are presented. A finite-element model is developed using the commercial software ABAQUS. The model includes structural, thermal and piezoelectric fields. A control algorithm is implemented to control the response of the structure in a closed loop actively. The control scheme is based on the measure of the out-of-plane displacement of the structure. A few experiments are conducted to check the validity of the predictions and to test the feasibility of using MFC actuators for active control. To generate thermal distortion easily a laminated structure with an unsymmetric lay-up was placed in an oven. The oven temperature was varied to create thermal loading. The experimental and theoretical results correlate very well and demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to perform active shape control of a structure subjected to thermal distortion.