Quarter-Cycle Switching Control for Switch-Shunted Dampers

Significant interest has been generated by the possibilities of active vibration control through the implementation of state switching, with a specific implementation embodied through piezoceramic shunting. A state-switched absorber (SSA) is a vibration absorber that has the unique ability to change its resonant state amongst multiple distinct resonant states while in motion, thereby increasing the effective bandwidth over that of a single frequency device and thereby allowing control of multi-frequency, transient, and time-varying disturbances. In contrast, a switch-shunted damper (SSD) is a variant of an SSA that is used to increase the damping of the structure to which the damper is applied. Active vibration control applications discussed in the literature indicate the potential advantages of SSDs which employ piezoelectric ceramics as switchable springs with control algorithms that require switching states at points of non-zero strain. However, consideration of the constitutive equations for piezoelectric materials indicates a discontinuity in the electrical and mechanical conditions imposed by switching the stiffness at non-zero strains. A prototype SSD has been built and tested to experimentally investigate switching control logic and electrical and mechanical discontinuities at switching points; experimental measurements with this prototype SSD indicate that quarter-cycle switching algorithms which include switching states at a condition of maximum strain yield enhanced damping effectiveness but also leads to the generation of potentially undesirable mechanical transients.