ON THE FUNCTIONALIZATION OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES USING PIEZOELECTRIC TRANSDUCERS FOR TRANSPORTATION APPLICATIONS: VIBRATION CONTROL AND ENERGY HARVESTING

Abstract. Composite material parts are used more than ever in transportation applications dueto their lightweight and mechanical strength. In recent years, progresses in additive manufactur-ing processes have allowed not only to produce such materials more easily but also to integrateactive components inside the layers to create smart composite materials. This paper presentstwo concrete applications for the transportation fi eld using integrated piezoelectric transducersinside the composite material layers: energy harvesting for embedded sensors and vibrationcontrol. First, a composite reduced-model car with an integrated transducer is excited usinga roller test bench. The piezoelectric patch is then coupled with an optimized self-poweredSynchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor circuit (SSHI) and up to 40µW are harvested ona resistive load. This power is stored on a capacitor and used to supply a temperature sen-sor in addition to its wireless transmitter. The second application is the control of vibrationsthrough multiple transducers as actuators and sensors integrated directly into the compositematerial of a spoiler using also nonlinear switching methods like Sliding Mode Control. Theperformance level achieved on the targeted modes is up to -22dB, illustrating the potential ofnonlinear switching control for vibration control. These two applications provide good illus-trations of the promising capabilities in the transportation fi eld of integrated composite smartstructures.