Effect of porosity on active vibration control of smart structure using porous functionally graded piezoelectric material

The present work investigates the active vibration control of host structure bonded with functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) as sensor and actuator layer. The effect of porosity volume fraction (ψ) and volume fraction index (λ) on active vibration attenuation is investigated and compared with the dense FGPM sensor and actuator layer. For more real life applications of FGPMs, two piezoelectric materials (PZT-5H and PZT-4) are modelled smoothly in a particular direction. The mechanical and piezoelectric properties of FGPMs vary across the thickness and calculated using power – law expressions. In addition to dense FGPM, two different distributions of the porosities are investigated. Shear deformation theory of first order is used to simulate the vibration response of the host composite plate based on Hamilton’s principle. A well-established negative velocity feedback controller is deployed to obtain active vibration control of the composite structure. The numerical results reveal that the volume fraction index (λ) plays vital role in the active damping of structural vibration. The FGPM-◊ demonstrates 5.7% and 6.32% improved active vibration damping performance compared to FGPM-UD at ψ = 0.1 and ψ = 0.2 respectively. The present investigation can be utilized for further studies on active vibration control of host structures integrated with FGPMs.