Independent modal control of circular rings based on non-contact hybrid photostrictive/piezoelectric acutation mechanism

When a near ultravolet light illuminates on polarized P _bLaZrTi (PLZT) materials, a large voltage can be generated between the electrodes due to the anomalous photovoltaic effect. The non-contact control of flexible shell can be realized using hybrid photovoltaic/piezoelectric actuation mechanism. In order to realize the non-contact independent modal control of circular rings, distributed cosine shaped modal actuators are designed based on the modal expantion method and the orthogonality of mode shape functions, and the polymeric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) orthogonal modal actuators are driven by the voltage generated by PLZT. The velocity feedback and constant light control algorithm are used. In order to shift the actuator induced positive and negative control forces, the connecting direction of PLZT generators and PVDF actuators is regulated by the sign of modal velocity. The dynamic responses with various constant light intensities are numeric simulated by applying Newmark-β method. The simulation results indicate that the control force exponentially increases with the light illumination, and the control effectiveness can be improved by applying higher light intensity.