Investigation of the energy transfer and consumption of adaptive structures

The authors describe a coupled electromechanical approach to analyzing the energy transfer and consumption in adaptive structures. A simple piezoelectric ceramic actuator driven one-degree-of-freedom spring-mass-damper system is presented as an example. In such a material system with integrated lead zirconate titanate (PZT) actuators, the power consumed by the PZT actuators consists of two parts: the power used to drive the system, which is dissipated in terms of heat as a result of the structural damping, and the power dissipated by the PZT actuators themselves because of their dielectric loss and internal damping. The reactive power resulting from the kinetic and potential energy of the mechanical system, as well as the electric field energy of the PZT actuators as reactance elements, is also quantified. The method presented may be applied to complicated systems