An innovative and multi-functional smart vibration platform

Abstract

Recently, there has been increasing efforts to incorporate vibration damping or energy dissipation mechanisms into civil structures, particularly by using smart materials technologies. Although papers about structural vibration control using smart materials have been published for more than two decades, there has been little research in developing teaching equipment to introduce smart materials to students via in-classroom demonstration or hands-on experiments. In this paper, an innovative and multi-functional smart vibration platform (SVP) has been developed by the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory at the University of Houston to demonstrate vibration control techniques using multiple smart materials for educational and research purposes. The vibration is generated by a motor with a mass imbalance mounted on top of the frame. Shape memory alloys (SMA) and magneto-rheological (MR) fluid are used to increase the stiffness and damping ratio, respectively, while a piezoceramic sensor (lead zirconate titanate, or PZT) is used as a vibration sensing device. An electrical circuit has been designed to control the platform in computer-control or manual mode through the use of knobs. The former mode allows for an automated demonstration, while the latter requires the user to manually adjust the stiffness and damping ratio of the frame. In addition, the system accepts network connections and can be used in a remote experiment via the internet. This platform has great potential to become an effective tool for teaching vibration control and smart materials technologies to students in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering for both education and research purposes.

Multifunctional Pilot Plant for Mechanical Engineers

“…Lin and Tsai [3] describe a self-balancing human transportation vehicle to illustrate control systems. In contrast to these single-course projects, there are reports [4,5] of experimental setups developed as cross-course projects. Schroeder et al [4] developed a hybrid vehiclebased laboratory to highlight elements of fl uid dynamics and hydraulics, energy systems, vibrations, mechatronics and control engineering.…”

A Multi Functional, Smart, Flexible, Vertical, Cantilevered Beam Experiment To Improve Undergraduate Education

“…However, it should be noted that this ability extends to remote implementation of controllers. The implementation of remote controlled laboratories with student access over the internet using the smart flexible beam with a similar electronic architecture has previously been reported 8 . Through the use of web-based virtual instruments (VI), students could access the smart beam hardware remotely.…”

“…This paper describes a flexible beam demonstration/experiment, using a smart material to both activate and sense its response. Though universities have used flexible, cantilevered beam experiments previously to re-enforce vibrations and system dynamics courses, the novel integration of the innovative piezoceramic technology allows a clearer, more accurate representation of the system dynamics 1,4,7,8 with a lower cost to the university than traditional set-ups. Thus, the demonstration/experiment seeks to improve the quality of education with a minimal increase in cost.…”

A Unified Framework for Remote Laboratory Experiments

“…These experiments use real instrumentation and components at a different location than where they are being controlled by the user. One of the popularly deployed technologies today for remote panel over the Internet is National Instrument's Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) software 4,6,8 . Despite the effectiveness and rapid prototyping of the software system, it has been plagued by software issues from LabVIEW's runtime engine.…”