Optimal Placement and Sizing of Piezoelectric Material for Multiple-Mode Vibration Reduction

Modern turbomachinery blades have extremely low inherent damping, which can lead to high transient vibrations and failure through high-cycle fatigue. Recent research seeks methods to reduce vibration with minimal effect on the weight and aerodynamic efficiency of the blade. Smart materials present an interesting means to augment the mechanical characteristics of the blade while meeting the strict requirements of the turboma-chinery environment. In particular, piezoelectric-based vibration reduction offers the potential to semi-actively reduce vibration while simultaneously harvesting enough energy to power the implementation. The placement and size of the piezoelectric material is critical to the vibration reduction capabilities of the system. Furthermore, the implementation should target multiple vibration modes. This work develops a procedure to optimize electromechanical coupling across multiple vibration modes for a representative turbine blade with a surface-mounted piezoelectric patch.