Vibration Control of a Cantilever Beam by Metal-Core Flexoelectric and Piezoelectric Fibers

Flexoelectric effect occurs in the solid crystalline dielectrics of symmetry or centro-symmetric crystals, which shows the electromechanical coupling of the polarization response and the strain gradient or the stress and the electric field gradient. Thus, a generic stress expression induced by the converse flexoelectric effect is established first in this study. The generic stress expression is simplified to a cantilever beam to evaluate the vibration control effect due to the converse flexoelectric effect. Flexoelectric fiber embedded with a metal core is placed into the cantilever beam to generate inhomogeneous electric field. When the flexoelectric fiber is actuated with the applied voltage, stress induced by the actuator is obtained with the electric field gradient, which results in a control bending moment to the beam. Static displacement control of the cantilever beam is established and the control effect is related to the fiber location and size of the flexoelectric fiber and the metal core. Cases show that the control effect is enhanced when the flexoelectric fiber is far away from the neural surface of the beam. Besides, the control effect can enhance with thinner fiber thickness. Since the piezoelectricity is similar to the flexoelectricity, comparison of the vibration control induced by the piezoelectric fiber is also discussed. The results show that the control effect of the flexoelectric fiber is more effective than the piezoelectric fiber in the cantilever beam.