Finite element reduced order model for noise and vibration reduction of double sandwich panels using shunted piezoelectric patches

Abstract This work concerns the control of sound transmission through double laminated panels with viscoelastic core using semi-passive piezoelectric shunt technique. More specifically, the system consists of two laminated walls, each one composed of three layers and called sandwich panel with an air cavity in between. The external sandwich panel has a surface-mounted piezoelectric patches. The piezoelectric elements, connected with resonant shunt circuits, are used for the vibration damping of some specific resonance frequencies of the coupled system. Firstly, a finite element formulation of the fully coupled visco-electro-mechanical-acoustic system is presented. This formulation takes into account the frequency dependence of the viscoelastic material. A modal reduction approach is then proposed to solve the problem at a lower cost. In the proposed technique, the coupled system is solved by projecting the mechanical displacement unknown on a truncated basis composed by the first real short-circuit structural normal modes and the pressure unknown on a truncated basis composed by the first acoustic modes with rigid boundaries conditions. The few initial electrical unknowns are kept in the reduced system. A static correction is also introduced in order to take into account the effect of higher modes. Various results are presented in order to validate and illustrate the efficiency of the proposed finite element reduced order formulation.