Active vibration control of a laminated composite plate subjected to blast load

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural vibration control system by using a state observer which estimates system states using displacements measured from sensors. Design/methodology/approach - Friedlander's exponential decay function is used for expressing the blast load model. A semiloof shell element is developed in order to account for piezoelectric effects. The composite plate is discretized by using the semiloof shell elements, and stiffness and mass matrices of the plate are obtained from the finite element model. In order to reduce the degrees of freedom of the finite element model, mode summation method is used with weighted modal vector including initial dominant modes in the dynamic behavior. Findings - The structural vibrations are suppressed successfully and in an optimal way by using a state observer control system which estimates system states using displacements measured from sensors. Originality/value - This paper shows, for the first time, that vibrations of a cantilevered composite plate subjected to blast loading are suppressed by the use of piezoelectric actuators. The state observer and optimal linear quadratic regulator are both used at the same time to suppress the vibrations.