Micro-Photodeformation Actions of Photostrictive Actuator Patches Applied to Vibration Control of Cylindrical Shells

The photostricitve actuator is a new class of distributed actuator that can induce non-contact distributed actuation without utilizing hard-wired connections, due to the photodeformation effect. In this paper, active distributed control of flexible cylindrical shells using discrete photostrictive actuators are investigated and the control effectiveness is evaluated. This paper presents a coupled opto-piezothermoelastic shell theory that incorporates photovoltaic, pyroelectric, piezoelectric and thermal effects, and has the capability to accurately predict the response of a shell to a command illumination applied to the photostrictive actuators. Expressions for the forces and moments that represent the action of the actuator patches have been developed. Governing equations are formulated. Solution procedures based on the modal analysis technique are outlined. The detailed actuator control effectiveness is evaluated with respect to actuator placements. It is shown that by properly positioned the actuators the system performance can be improved. Numerical simulation results also show that the membrane control action is more significant than the bending control action.