F.E.M. design method of metallic and composite smart structures with piezoelectric actuators

This article describes a design method to size smart structures with piezoelectric ceramics. The method makes it possible to determine the amplitudes of vibrations that may be generated by piezoelectric ceramics bonded on a metallic or composite structure. One of the possible applications of the method is the preliminary design of smart structures for active vibration control. This case is particularly treated in this article. The method is based on a reduced model that can be established using a multiphysics FEM software. This model can also be used to compute the control law for vibrations attenuation.