Regional activation of a composite plate using selective actuation from multiple piezoelectric actuators

This paper reports on a method to create regional activation of a 2-D composite plate using multiple piezoelectric actuators. We derived an analytical solution to design the spatial locations of multiple piezoelectric actuators that attach to the surface of a 2-D composite plate. The composite plate consisted of a thin glass layer and a polymer layer, with dimensions of 90 mm × 73 mm. In our study, eleven PZT piezoelectric plates were bonded on together on top of it, and their spatial locations were determined by bending angle differences of the modal functions in the X and Y directions and the integral differences of the modal function in the X and Y directions. We calculated the contribution of each PZT piezoelectric patch to the selected bending modes. To induce vibration in the specific regions, we utilized the superposition of Φ₄₁ and Φ₄₃, Φ₂₄ and Φ₄₄ , as well as Φ₃₁ and Φ₃₃ , to achieve effective excitation of the bending modes. Thus, by employing multiple actuators, we selectively activated the composite plate corresponding to specific bending modes which enabled excitation in different regions and ensured the presence of antinodes in the desired areas. Finally, finite element analysis was used to verify that the displacement at the central point of a specific piezoelectric plate can reach more than 2 μm.