Abstract
Current applications in active vibration control mainly use piezoceramic actuators (PZT). With the aim of improving vibration absorption, electrostrictive actuators have been elaborated. These electrostrictive ceramics show very attractive properties for active vibration control applications. Yet, their non-linear electromechanical behavior tempers these numerous advantages and considerably complicates their use. In usual active vibration control applications, dynamic electric fields with varying magnitudes and frequencies are applied to the ceramic. Earlier measurements, performed at ONERA, showed that the ceramic behavior is strongly sensitive to operating parameters (electric field magnitude, excitation frequency, and surrounding temperature). It is demontrated in this paper that this sensitivity can be reduced to a sensitivity of the material to its own temperature. Indeed, a significant heating of electrostrictive ceramics occurs when they are subjected to a variable electric field. This heating turns out to be, itself, dependent on operating parameters. An experimental electric model of stress-free electrostrictive patches is here presented, taking into account this thermal phenomena. This model is then used to develop constitutive relations for these materials with the view of using them as actuators in active vibration control of thin plate structures.
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