Smart Materials Used for Aero Engine Vibration Control

Abstract

The new generation of smart materials and structure technologies featuring at the most sophisticated level a network of sensors and actuators, real time control capabilities, computational capabilities and a host structural material. Smart materials are usually attached or embedded into structural systems to enable these structures to sense disturbances, process the information and evoke reaction at the actuators, possibly to negate the effect of the original disturbance. For active vibration reduction tasks in smart structures technology, piezoelectric ceramics are the first choice. They generate large forces, have fast response times, are commercially available as fibers, patches and stacks, and allow integration into structural components. Piezoelectric extension actuators are bonded to the surface or embedded within the structure. Resonant vibrations of aero engine blades cause blade fatigue problems in engines, which can lead to thicker and aerodynamically lower performing blade designs, increasing engine weight, fuel burn, and maintenance costs. In order to suppress undesirable blade vibration levels, active piezoelectric vibration control are used, potentially enabling thinner blade designs for higher performing blades and minimizing blade fatigue problems. Thus, this paper gives an overview of smart materials, piezoelectric materials and their applications in vibration damping and a finite element ANSYS model analysis for piezoelectric bimorph beam including resistor capacitor (RC) circuit to study the effect of resistance (R) and capacitance (C) values change in vibration damping control.