HOME WORK II:

Active Damping of Vibrations

T.Arriessa Sukhairi
(108013235855)

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

Laboratory: Active damping of vibrations

The aim of the experiment is to actively influence the dynamic behaviour of a vibrating
clamped beam, using piezoelectric materials.
Free end of a clamped cantilever beam is deflected up to a predetermined displacement and
then released. The vibration velocity of the beam is measured at a certain point using a laser
vibrometer. This measured velocity represents the input to the P-controller, which amplifies
the velocity signal and feeds it to the piezoelectric patch as control input. In this way the change
of the vibration amplitudes decay should be achieved, using different gains of the P-controller.

Figure 1. Experiment setup

Perform the measurements and data acquisition of the velocity signal at a selected point
on the beam using the laser vibrometer and dSPACE system. Measurements should be
performed for different values of the controller gain, e.i. 0, 0.05,..,0.5. Describe the
measurement procedure.
1. Set the gain value in the computer
2. The computer will give the input about the gain value to the dSpace Box and
then sent the signal from the amplifier to the piezoelectric patch.
3. Give some movement to the beam then the laser vibrometer will read the
velocity signal then sent it to the dSpace Box and then to the Computer.
4. We will get the result as a graphic about the motion of the beam in which there
is amplitude in y direction and time in x direction (figure2).
5. Then save the data.

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

Figure 2. Output and Input interface

We can determine the decay rate of the exponential envelope g and the damping
ratio g for different values of the gain factor gv by using the data that we got from
the experiments as can be seen in the Table below.
Gain

Response

0.05

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

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0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

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0.5

Table 1. Input to Matlab

To calculate the decay rate we need to input all of this figure, then we will take
two point from each of the picture and the distance or interval between the two
points that we pick.
To calculate the decay point we use:

In which te, ta, x(ta) and x(te) that we read from the Matlab Plot in table one for
each plot.
Gain

ta

te

x(ta)

x(te)

0.8048

1.163

244.6 198.6

0.05

1.583

1.941

104.7 87.76

0.1

0.0238 0.3794 377.9 279.2

0.15

0.9329

1.287

74.23 58.85

0.2

1.218

1.574

69.65 53.94

0.25

1.494

1.847

35.72 26.83

0.3

1.007

1.359

78.7

0.35

0.0837 0.4377 178.9 119.6

0.4

0.4389 0.7895 112.9 76.55

0.45

0.7186

1.072

84.07 55.02

0.5

0.9282

1.281

66.41 42.12

57.05

Table 2. The resonance frequency

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

To calculate the damping ratio and the natural frequency we need to use this
equation:
1. Find the period

Where: n = interval between t e and ta

2. Find the frequency

3. Convert to rad/s

4. Finding Natural Frequency

5. Finding the damping ratio

Then we got:
Gain Decay Rate Damping Ratio Natural Frequency
gv [-]

0.58160

0.00663

87.7069

0.05

0.49299

0.00561

87.7553

0.1

0.85124

0.00963

88.3503

0.15

0.65568

0.00739

88.7229

0.2

0.71800

0.00813

88.2499

0.25

0.81073

0.00910

89.0006

0.3

0.91396

0.01023

89.2544

0.35

1.13749

0.01281

88.7528

0.4

1.10826

0.01236

89.6130

0.45

1.19964

0.01349

88.9043

0.5

1.29060

0.01449

89.0567

Table 3. The Decay Rate, natural frequency and Damping Ratio

Gain (gv) = Gain (g)

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

Based on the measurements points (gv, g) we can perform the curve fitting using
the polynomial of the first order (linear function). Then we can determine the
coefficients a, b of the fitted linear function g(gv) as be shown below:
By plotting (gv, g) we get graphics as can be seen in the figure 3.

Figure 3. gv, g curve

Then by doing curve fitting we will get the first order (linear function) of this
graphic.

Figure 4. Linear function curve vs gv, g curve

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

Figure 5. Basic Fitting Toolbox

As can be seen from the figure 4 and 5 the function is:

Y = 0.017* x + 0.0058
We know that corresponding gain is calculated from:

By using the Y equation, we know that a and b coefficients is 0.017 and 0.0058
respectively.
To determine for which damping ratio g the vibration amplitude decays after 1.5
seconds to 30% of its initial value. We can calculate by:
t = 1.5s
t = te-ta
1.5s = te - ta
Xe = X(te) = 30% X(ta) = 0.3 X(ta)

By using :

Advanced Control Methods for Adaptive Mechanical Systems

1
( )
ln
1.5
0.3( )

= 0.8026

=
=

4 2 + 2
0.8026
4 2 + 0.80262

= 0.1267
Then we can also find at which gain factor gv is the damping ratio equal to zero
(g = 0). We can Calculate and check our result later by experimentally!
= +
0 = 0.017 + 0.0058
=

0.0058
0.017

= 0.3412

10