Active vibration attenuation in viscoelastic laminated composite panels using multiobjective optimization

The optimal design of viscoelastic laminated composite panels with active piezoelectric patches is addressed in this paper. Constrained optimization is conducted to determine optimal distributions of piezoelectric patches on the top and bottom surfaces of laminated plates with viscoelastic layers. The design variables are the number and position of these patches, and the objectives are the minimization of the number of patches, the maximization of the fundamental modal loss factor and the maximization of the fundamental natural frequency. The problem is solved using the Direct MultiSearch (DMS) solver for derivative-free MultiObjective Optimization (MOO). The objective functions are evaluated by a finite element model that was developed for laminated sandwich plates incorporating piezoelectric or viscoelastic layers. Trade-off Pareto optimal fronts and the respective optimal active patch configurations are obtained and the results are analyzed and discussed.