Panel Flutter Limit-Cycle Suppression with Piezoelectric Actuation

Abstract

An optimal control design is presented to suppress panel flutter limit-cycle motions using piezoelectric actuators. First, the nonlinear dynamic equations of motion based on the classical continuum method are derived for a simply supported isotropic panel with a pair of patched piezoelectric layers. After linearizing the dynamic modal equations, an optimal controller is developed to provide an optimal combination of inplane force and bending moments through piezoelectric actuators for flutter suppression. For the panel configuration studied, numerical simulations based on the nonlinear model show that the maximum suppressible dynamic pressure X,.,. can be increased about three times of the critical dynamic pressure Xc, by the piezoelectric actuation, and the bending moment is much more effective in flutter suppression than the inplane force. Within the maximum suppressible dynamic pressure, limit-cycle motions can be completely suppressed. For the actuator design, the two-set actuators perform better than the one-patched actuator, and the one-patched actuator, may have better performance than the completely covered actuator. The results demonstrate that piezoelectric materials are effective in panel flutter suppression.