U.S.-Germany Program: Dissertation Research in Mechanical Engineering

这个奖项支持埃里克弗林特，教授克雷格A的研究生。罗杰斯在智能材料系统和结构中心，弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学，花五个月的时间在德国航空航天研究机构（DLR）在布伦瑞克，德国进行研究。 他主持这一时期的论文相关研究是Jorg Melcher，DLR结构力学研究所自适应结构系统部副主任。该研究所可能是欧洲自适应结构振动控制领域最强的研究所。 CIMMS的研究重点是表征作为复杂结构一部分的“智能”致动器的电气和机械行为。 Flint先生正致力于此类智能系统技术的智能设计。 德国研究所的研究集中在建造结构集成的致动器和设计控制算法，以隔离振动和控制气动弹性效应。 Flint先生的论文研究访问将为美国和德国研究小组之间提供积极的联系，使CIMSS能够接触到DLR提供的大型测试结构和其他类型的堆栈执行器。 通过被动设计改进来控制桁架结构中的不良振动和其他行为已经达到了技术极限。 主动控制提供了一种进一步提高结构性能的方法。增加一种将力施加到结构中的方法，可以创建力路径，用于控制和消除过度振动。 一种很有前途的方法是多层堆叠致动器，它由机械串联和电气并联的活性材料薄层组成。 控制-结构相互作用的这一领域在美国引起了广泛的兴趣，因为它有可能显着提高各种结构系统的效率和性能，从飞机到通信天线，以及抑制重型机械，桥梁和某些类型的建筑物的振动。

This award supports Eric Flint, a graduate student of Professor Craig A. Rogers in the Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, to spend five months carrying out research at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) in Braunschweig, Germany. His host for this period of dissertation-related research is Jorg Melcher, Deputy Head of the Division of Adaptive Structural Systems of the Institute of Structural Mechanics of DLR. This Institute is possibly the strongest in Europe in the area of adaptive structural vibration control. Research at CIMMS is focused on characterizing the electrical and mechanical behavior of `smart` actuators as part of complex structures. Mr. Flint is working on intelligent design of such smart system technology. Research in the German institute has concentrated on building structurally integrated actuators and designing control algorithms to isolate vibration and control aeroelastic effects.. Mr. Flint's dissertation research visit will provide an active link between the U.S. and German research groups, giving CIMSS access to the large test structures and other types of stack actuators available at DLR. The control of undesirable vibration and other behavior in truss-like structures by passive design improvement is reaching its technical limit. Active control offers a way to further improve the performance range of structures. Adding a method of putting force into the structure creates force paths which can be used to control and eliminate excess vibration. A promising approach is multi-layered stack actuators, which consist of thin layers of active materials that are mechanically in serial and electrically in parallel. This area of control-structure interaction is of widespread interest in the U.S. because of its potential to significantly improve the efficiency and performance of a wide variety of structural systems, from airplanes to communication antennae, as well as suppressing vibration in heavy machinery, bridges and certain types of buildings.