A New Semi-Active Piezoelectric-Based Friction Damper

A new way to perform vibration control on a single-degree-of-freedom system using a piezoelectric friction damper is developed. The damper consists of an actuator, which is based on a piezoelectric stack with a mechanical amplifying mechanism that provides symmetric forces within the isolator. The advantages of such an actuator are its high bandwidth, actuating response and its ability to operate in vacuum environments such as in space. The damper is constrained to move using an air bearing that produces a virtually ideal single-degree-of-freedom spring-mass system. Within this work, the actuating ability of the friction-based actuator is characterized. The relationship between the force generated by the actuator and the applied voltage was found to be linear. The maximum force generated by the friction damper in this study is 85 N for the specific friction pads used