Experimental investigation of vibration amplitude control in additive manufactured PLA and PLA composite structures with MFC actuator

In this study, Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) as actuator has been used for open-loop active vibration control (AVC) in additive manufactured structures made of polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA composites, such as PLA with short carbon fibers (PLA-SCF composite) and PLA with continuous carbon fibers (PLA-CCF composite), when subjected to forced vibrations. The laser vibrometer has been used to find the natural frequencies and bending mode shapes of each beam structure. The MFC patch (M8507-P2), used here as an actuator, is very sensitive to supplied voltages. Thus, it is very crucial to find out the optimum phase and amplitude of the input voltage. The optimal phase angle and voltage for each structure (PLA, PLA-SCF, PLA-CCF) are estimated by a domain search in an incremental manner. Once tuned with the optimal input voltage values, the proposed technique shows exceptional performance in vibration suppression. The results confirmed that this technique can be used in a wide range of composite materials.