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

Eric Flint是弗吉尼亚州理工学院和州立大学智能材料系统和结构中心Craig a . Rogers教授的研究生，他将在位于德国布伦瑞克的德国航空航天研究机构（DLR）进行为期五个月的研究。他这段时间的论文相关研究的东道主是Jorg Melcher， DLR结构力学研究所自适应结构系统部门的副主任。该研究所可能是欧洲自适应结构振动控制领域最强大的研究所。CIMMS的研究重点是表征作为复杂结构一部分的“智能”执行器的电气和机械行为。弗林特先生正在研究这种智能系统技术的智能设计。德国研究所的研究主要集中在构建结构集成执行器和设计控制算法，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能够访问DLR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的不良振动和其他行为已经达到了它的技术极限。主动控制为进一步提高结构的性能范围提供了一种途径。添加一种将力放入结构的方法，可以创建用于控制和消除过度振动的力路径。一种很有前途的方法是多层堆叠致动器，它由薄层活性材料组成，这些活性材料在机械上是串联的，在电气上是并联的。控制-结构相互作用的这一领域在美国引起了广泛的兴趣，因为它有可能显著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.