Passive damping performance of an adaptive carbon-fiber reinforced plastics/lead zirconate titanate beam

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are widely used as structural materials in applications such as spacecraft structures. However, although they have a high stiffness and low density, these materials are considered to be unsuitable for low-vibration structures because of their inherent low vibration damping (loss factor η = 0.001-0.01). This study examines the passive damping of CFRP cantilever beams using resistively shunted, surface-bonded piezoelectric ceramic, PbZrO₃-PbTiO₃ (PZT) sheets. The vibration damping of the CFRP beam is significantly improved at the optimal shunting resistance which can be predicted theoretically. The first three vibration modes are most effectively damped by locating the PZT elements in areas of maximum strain as determined by a modal analysis of the beam.