%0 Journal Article
%T Simulating Displacement and Velocity Signals by Piezoelectric Sensor in Vibration Control Applications
%A G. J. Sheu
%A S. M. Yang
%A W. L. Huang
%J Smart Materials Research
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/390873
%X Intelligent structures with built-in piezoelectric sensor and actuator that can actively change their physical geometry and/or properties have been known preferable in vibration control. However, it is often arguable to determine if measurement of piezoelectric sensor is strain rate, displacement, or velocity signal. This paper presents a neural sensor design to simulate the sensor dynamics. An artificial neural network with error backpropagation algorithm is developed such that the embedded and attached piezoelectric sensor can faithfully measure the displacement and velocity without any signal conditioning circuitry. Experimental verification shows that the neural sensor is effective to vibration suppression of a smart structure by embedded sensor/actuator and a building structure by surface-attached piezoelectric sensor and active mass damper. 1. Introduction Composite structures with surface-mounted or -embedded piezoelectric materials as sensors and/or actuators have been investigated for they possess mechanical simplicity, efficient electromechanical energy conversion, and ability to integrate within structures. Much attention to date has been on analysis and experiment of active vibration control by using piezoelectric sensors and actuators. Review on using piezoelectric materials to MEMS sensor [1], morphing aircraft [2], and structural repair [3] have been reported. Yang and Chiu [4] were among the first to embedded piezoelectric sensors inside composite-laminated structures. The sensors were found to have stiffening effects [5¨C8]. Among the applications; however, piezoelectric sensor measurement was considered as displacement signal [9¨C11], velocity signal [12, 13], or strain rate signal [14, 15]. There seems to be inconsistency on the signal nature, and signal conditioning circuit is often necessary. It is known that effective vibration control requires the system state of displacement and velocity; however, such signals are difficult to acquire as they are often obtained either by accelerometer with hardware integration for velocity or by piezoelectric sensor assuming velocity measurement. Accurate sensor dynamics modeling is required for designing a controller immune to modeling discrepancy. Artificial neural networks with the ability of self-learning, generalization, and robustness have been shown suitable for simulating sensor dynamics by system identification. The concept of neural sensor design is to use the piezoelectric sensor measurement to estimate online both the displacement and velocity at the sensor location. Recent development
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/smr/2012/390873/