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

该奖项支持Craig A.Rogers教授在弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学智能材料系统和结构中心的研究生Eric Flint花5个月的时间在德国布伦施韦格的德国航空航天研究所(DLR)进行研究。他主持这一时期与论文相关的研究的是德国洛桑联邦大学结构力学研究所自适应结构系统部副主任约格·梅尔彻。该研究所可能是欧洲在自适应结构振动控制领域最强的研究所。CIMMS的研究重点是将智能执行器的电气和机械行为描述为复杂结构的一部分。范智廉正致力于这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执行器和设计控制算法来隔离振动和控制气动弹性效应。范智廉的博士论文研究访问将在美国和德国的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叠执行器。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。主动控制为进一步提高结构的性能范围提供了一条途径。在结构中增加一种施力的方法，可以产生可以用来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叠层致动器，它由机械上串联和电上并联的薄层活性材料组成。控制-结构相互作用的这一领域在美国引起了广泛的兴趣，因为它有可能显著提高从飞机到通信天线等各种结构系统的效率和性能，并抑制重型机械、桥梁和某些类型建筑的振动。

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.