Actuation Performance of Macro Fibre Composite (MFC) as Actuator in Vibration Reduction of Cantilever Beams

This study proposes a vibration suppression technique that uses piezoelectric material to restrict the dynamic amplitudes of a cantilever beam. The finite element analysis (FEA) model of the cantilever is created and incorporated with Macro Fiber Composite (MFC8507-P2) in the ANSYS framework. A comparative study has been performed using three different types of materials i.e., Polylactic acid (PLA), PLA with Short Carbon Fibers (PLA-SCF Composite), and PLA with Continuous Carbon Fibers (PLA-CCF Composite), for the beam.  An external disturbance causes the beam to vibrate, and the MFC8507-P2 patch provides a counter-force to the structure to reduce vibrations. The MFC8507-P2 patch is placed at an appropriate location on each beam to suppress vibration induced by the initial fundamental modes. Modal analysis has been performed to find the natural frequencies and the contribution of each mode to the overall response under dynamic loading conditions.  Transient structural analysis is performed to observe the influence of the MFC8507-P2 patch on vibration amplitude with time. Furthermore, frequency response analysis has been performed to determine the impact of the MFC8507-P2 patch on the vibration amplitude of the natural modes. The vibration response has been measured at the tip of the beam and the simulation results validate that the vibration amplitude decreases as the applied voltage increases.