Abstract
In the literature collocated or distributed arrays of piezeoelectric patches are employed to actively control structural vibrations. In the present work in order to damp beam vibrations a completely passive electric controller is designed, exploiting distributed piezoelectric transduction. In this way a simultaneous multimodal vibration suppression is obtained. The optimal electric network (interconnecting the piezoelectric transducers) is synthesized as a finite differences approximation of the derived distributed (infinite dimensional) optimal controller. A prototype of the proposed novel smart structure (Piezo-ElectroMechanical beam) is designed, allowing for appreciating its technical feasibility and effectiveness.