Review on applications of piezoelectric materials for aero-engine blade vibration suppression

Abstract

Unexpected vibration of aero-engine blades may lead to fatigue failure. In order to reduce the harmful vibration of aero-engine blades, many smart materials have been employed for blade vibration suppression applications. Among them, a hot research area is vibration suppression using piezoelectric materials with damping circuits or active vibration control algorithms, by providing new and effective methodology to suppress the vibration of aero engines. This paper summarizes the current research status of vibration suppression for aero-engine blades using piezoelectric materials in recent years. Firstly, the structure of aero-engine and the background of vibration suppression are introduced briefly; secondly, the design process and several typical applications of passive vibration suppression and active vibration suppression methods are reviewed, their advantages and disadvantages are compared; finally, conclusions are made and some suggestions are summarized for the next generation smart structure aero-engine blades, such as the necessity of global geometry optimization and topology optimization, integrated structural/control optimization for engineering applications.