CAREER: Design and Integration of Piezoelectric Actuators in Civil Engineering Structures

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The primary goal of this CAREER project is to develop piezoelectric actuators with high control capability and implement them in building structures. These actuators are a piezoelectric wedge actuator, a piezoelectrically-driven friction damper, and a shear-mode piezoelectric actuator. A truss mechanism is introduced to further amplify the control force from the actuators. The project consists of design and fabrication of the three actuators, their modeling and tests, and their integration into a 1/4-scale steel frame structure. Analytical models of the structure and actuators will be established and experimentally verified in a laboratory. Effectiveness of these actuators is measured by the reduction of peak displacement/acceleration responses of the structure when subjected to earthquake ground motion. For all actuators, simple but robust control algorithms with local deformation and force (acceleration) feedback will be developed. Coordinated interdisciplinary collaboration and industry participation are emphasized. The research results will be implemented into two recently-developed graduate courses on smart structures and disseminated to professional engineers by delivering in-house presentations in several pioneer consulting firms. A small-scale, two-story plastic frame is designed and manufactured for demonstration to K-12 students and senior undergraduates to stimulate their interest in structural control and prepare them for higher education. This is a FY98 CAREER award.