Active vibration control of a ring-stiffened cylindrical shell in contact with unbounded external fluid and subjected to harmonic disturbance by piezoelectric sensor and actuator

Abstract This paper is concerned with the suppression of vibrations and radiated sound of a ring-stiffened circular cylindrical shell in contact with unbounded external fluid by means of piezoelectric sensors and actuators. The dynamic model of a circular cylindrical shell based on the Sanders shell theory was considered together with a ring stiffener model. The mass and stiffness matrices for a ring stiffener were newly derived in this study and added to the mass and stiffness matrices of the cylindrical shell, respectively. The fluid-added mass matrix, which was derived by using the baffled shell theory, was also added to the mass matrix. Finally, the equations representing the piezoelectric sensor measurement and piezoelectric actuation complete the theoretical model for the addressed problem. The natural vibration characteristics of the ring-stiffened cylindrical shell both in air and in water were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical predictions were in good agreement with the experimental results. An active vibration controller which can cope with a harmonic disturbance was designed by considering the modified higher harmonic control, which is, in fact, a band rejection filter. An active vibration control experiment on the submerged cylindrical shell was carried out in a water tank and the digital control system was used. The experimental results showed that both vibrations and radiation sound of the submerged cylindrical shell were suppressed by a pair of piezoelectric sensor and actuator.