Active control of thermally induced distortion in composite structures using Macro Fiber Composite actuators

The paper investigates the use of Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuators to actively control thermally induced deformations in composite structures. Numerical and experimental results are presented. A finite-element model is developed using the commercial software ABAQUS. The model includes structural, thermal and piezoelectric fields. A control algorithm is implemented to control the response of the structure in a closed loop actively. The control scheme is based on the measure of the out-of-plane displacement of the structure. A few experiments are conducted to check the validity of the predictions and to test the feasibility of using MFC actuators for active control. To generate thermal distortion easily a laminated structure with an unsymmetric lay-up was placed in an oven. The oven temperature was varied to create thermal loading. The experimental and theoretical results correlate very well and demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to perform active shape control of a structure subjected to thermal distortion.