An experimental study of the actuation authority of rings and shells

摘要

The in-phase and out-of-phase actuation authority of induced strain actuators bonded to the surface of a shell is compared using previously derived models. In-phase refers to a situation where both actuators bonded on the top and bottom surfaces of the shell are actuated to produce strains in the same direction; out-of-phase refers to opposite direction strains. It is shown that out-of-phase actuation has better authority in exciting the lower order bending modes, while in-phase actuation has better authority in exciting the higher order circumferential modes. In-phase actuation does excite the lower order bending modes through the in-plane and out-of-plane displacement coupling, but an order of magnitude lower.