Piezoelectric metamaterial plates for enhanced vibroacoustic performance

• Grant number: 23/09065-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: September 11, 2023
• End date: September 10, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Mechanics of Solids
• Principal Investigator: Carlos de Marqui Junior
• Grantee: Camila Sanches Schimidt
• Supervisor: Elke Deckers
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Leuven, Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/09473-5 - Design and analysis of nonlinear metastructures for vibration attenuation and energy harvesting, BP.DD

Abstract

Plates are structural components used in various areas of engineering, including automobiles, aircraft, machines, and buildings, to name a few. The investigation of sound radiation from plates has been the object of research for many years, as they transmit sound more efficiently than other structural elements when subjected to external loads. Among various techniques explored to make such engineering systems quieter, the concept of band gaps of locally resonant metamaterials has recently received significant attention as they can affect significantly the vibroacoustic behavior of plates. However, metamaterials with fixed properties have been explored in most cases previously reported in the literature. Piezoelectric metamaterial plates combined with digital shunt circuits, whose properties can be tuned by updating their electrical domain, have been investigated in the research project under development in Brazil. Numerical results have shown that graded piezoelectric plates outperform periodic configurations in sound attenuation over a wide frequency range. Furthermore, the effects of various spatial configurations of shunt circuits (along the plate) on the directionality of sound radiated from a point-excited piezoelectric metamaterial plate have been studied, showing an alternative for sound directivity control. The research internship abroad is an opportunity to combine skills from both research groups on smart metamaterials, model-order reduction, optimization, and experimental verifications to develop a fully reconfigurable piezoelectric metamaterial plate for enhanced vibroacoustic performance. (AU)