Active Vibration Control Using Self-Sensing Actuators: An Experimental Comparison of Piezoelectric and Electromagnetic Technologies

The paper addresses the practical implementation of active vibration control using self-sensing actuators, intending to equip smart structures. The control objective is to reduce the structural vibration of a simply-supported plate subject to time-harmonic excitation. The key challenge is to use a self-sensing actuator instead of a sensor-actuator pair to reject the primary disturbance at the control point. In this study, two types of self-sensing actuators designed from a PZT patch and an electrodynamic inertial exciter are discussed, and their overall performance is compared in terms of reduction of flexural energy and power consumption. Both technologies have proven to be efficient in achieving a time-harmonic vibration control and may be used alternately, depending on the application at hand.