Abstract
Photovoltaic materials, which can directly turn light energy into electric energy, can offer the advantage of generating large voltages without external power supplies. When a near ultraviolet light illuminates on polarized PbLaZrTi (PLZT) materials, an electrical field can be generated along the spontaneous polarization direction due to the phovoltaic effect. This voltage generation mechanism exhibits many advantages, such as (1) high electrical output voltage, (2) wireless energy generation, (3) immune from electric/magnetic disturbances, (4) remote or non-contact control. In this study, Distributed vibration control of cylindrical shells using a hybrid photovoltaic/piezoelectric actuation mechanism is investigated. The light-driven photovoltaic generator induced voltage is used to drive a skew-quad piezoelectric actuator which can induce non-uniform control froces and control moments. Based on theoretical analysis and experimental validation, the constitutive equations defining the piezoelectric actuator induced actuation strain under the actuation mechanism are presented. Each region of the actuator system can induce both positive and negative control forces and moments using logical switches to shift the sign of control voltage of actuator system. Control effectiveness with constant light intensity control algorithm is evaluated and the time history analysis is presented.