Optimal placement of piezoelectric active bars in vibration control by topological optimization

A continuous variable optimization method and a topological optimization method are proposed for the vibration control of piezoelectric truss structures by means of the optimal placements of active bars. In this optimization model, a zero-one discrete variable is defined in order to solve the optimal placement of piezoelectric active bars. At the same time, the feedback gains are also optimized as continuous design variables. A two-phase procedure is proposed to solve the optimization problem. The sequential linear programming algorithm is used to solve optimization problem and the sensitivity analysis is carried out for objective and constraint functions to make linear approximations. On the basis of the Newmark time integration of structural transient dynamic responses, a new sensitivity analysis method is developed in this paper for the vibration control problem of piezoelectric truss structures with respect to various kinds of design variables. Numerical examples are given in the paper to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methods.