Comparison of Active and Hybrid Vibration Confinement With Conventional Active Vibration Control

This paper presents a numerical study in which active and hybrid vibration confinement is compared with a conventional active vibration control method. Vibration confinement is a vibration control technique that is based on reshaping structural modes to produce “quiet areas” in a structure as opposed to adding damping as in conventional active or passive methods. In this paper, active and hybrid confinement is achieved in a flexible beam with two pairs of piezoelectric actuators and sensors and with two vibration absorbers. For comparison purposes, active damping is achieved also with two pairs of piezoelectric actuators and sensors using direct velocity feedback. The results show that both approaches are effective in controlling vibrations in the targeted area of the beam, with direct velocity feedback being slightly more cost effective in terms of required power. When combined with passive confinement, however, each method is improved with a significant reduction in required power.