2020 Volume 5 Pages 178-184
In this study, an actuator made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was designed and fabricated to investigate its effectiveness in the active vibration control of light-weight structures which generally have low internal damping. The actuator was composed of two acrylic films, two film electrodes, and PVDF. PVDF was installed between the two acrylic films, with the film electrodes glued onto both sides of PVDF. The thickness and electrostatic capacity of PVDF were 28 μm and 11 nF, respectively. The length, width, thickness, and weight of the actuator were 171 mm, 22 mm, 40 μm, and 3 g, respectively. The electrodes of the actuator were connected to an AC power supply with a voltage amplifier. AC power was supplied within the frequency range 100-2,000 Hz. Active vibration control was achieved using a simple feed-forward control technique. The results showed that the vibrational acceleration of the vibrating flat plate in the range 2-12 m/s2 could be decreased by up to 50% using the actuator as intended in one-frequency vibration control. Further, it also could be decreased by up to 40% using the actuator in two-frequency vibration control.
