Experimental validation on optimal placement of pzt plates for active beam multimode vibrations reduction

In the last decades, many efforts have been made by mechanical, civil and aeronautical engineers in design and research of smart materials and structures. Typically these systems adapt their features to variable loading conditions and exhibit high fatigue resistance. In fact if the vibrations are uncontrolled, the affected components may experience fatigue issues or failures. Therefore an active vibration damping may be particularly desirable in many engineering fields, e.g.Turbomachinery blades. To this regard the piezoelectric (PZT) actuators are used and their positioning on a mechanical component plays a key role in damping efficiency. In this paper, the authors have been experimentally tested an analytical model for optimal placement of piezoelectric plates in multimode beam vibrations proposed in a previous work. The results have been compared with the analytical and numerical solutions and the outcomes have been discussed.