Andreas SCHONECKER, Thomas RODIG, Uwe KEITEL, Sylvia GEBHARDT, Bent BRUCKNER, Lutz SEFFNER. Smart structures are gaining importance especially in the field of lightweight design Use of actuators, sensors and electronics buried in the load bearing structure offers the opportunity for noise reduction, vibration and shape control micro positioning and health monitoring First active solutions are based on commercially available bulk and multilayer actuators. They show high stiffness, high blocking forces and short response times but they are very fragile with low damage tolerance against non-axial loads Mounting of these monolithic actuators into structural components needs therefore additional mechanical interfaces. Furthermore, geometry of multilayer actuators is limited to rectangular shapes and a set of defined sizes. To overcome these drawbacks, solutions based on piezocomposites have been investigated during the last decade. At present, mainly low profile piezocomposite actuator types have been commercialized, as for example the ACX-module [1], the Active Fiber Composite (AFC) [2] and the Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) [3]. These sheet piezocomposites consist mainly of a monolayer of PZT fibers or rods longitudinal arranged between two polymer sheets and electrodes. They are available as 3-3 (d33-effect) or 3-1 (d31 -effect) modules. These piezocomposites are suitable for application on flat surfaces but not for voluminous structures.
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