Electrostatic tuning of the bending stiffness of simple, slender multilayer composite structures

摘要

Vibration control and suppression in structures plays a central role in the extension of their service life and improvement of their reliability. While in many cases the solution of this problem implies the introduction of external damping devices, it is also conceivable to adaptively modify their vibratory properties, so that the occurrence of severe vibrations due to resonance phenomena can be curbed at its origin. The modification of the shear stress transfer at the interface between the core and the faces of a sandwich beam has been shown to have a remarkable effect on the bending stiffness of the structure. Such modification can be obtained by applying a normal stress between the core and the un-bonded, electrically insulated faces of the sandwich by means of a strong electrical field. An intermediate behavior between fully bonded and un-bonded layers in terms of inter-laminar shear stress can be achieved by temporary electrostatic bonding of the components. The outlined approach to the reduction of transversal vibrations in thin multi-layer beams is promising and can in principle be applied to multi-layer plates.