Abstract
This study aims at performing sensitivity analysis of piezoelectric smart structure for minimizing radiated noise from the structure, The structure consists of a flat plate on which disk shaped piezoelectric actuator is mounted, and finite element modeling is used for the structure. The finite element modeling uses a combination of three dimensional piezoelectric, flat shell and transition elements so thus it can take into account the coupling effects of the piezoelectric device precisely and it can also reduce the degrees of freedom of the finite element model. Electric potential on the piezoelectric actuator is taken as a design variable and total radiated power of the structure is chosen as an objective function. The objective function can be represented as Rayleigh's integral equation and is a function of normal displacements of the structure. For the convenience of computation, all degrees of freedom of the finite element equation is condensed out except the normal displacements of the structure. To perform the design sensitivity analysis, the derivative of the objective function with respect to the normal displacements is found, and the derivative of the norma displacements with respect to the design variable is calculated from the finite element equation by using so called the adjoint variable method. The analysis results are compared with those of the finite difference method, and shows a good agreement. This sensitivity analysis is faster and more accurate than the finite difference method. Once the sensitivity analysis program is used for gradient-based optimizations, one could achieve a better convergence rate than non-derivative methods for optimal design of piezoelectric smart structures.
