This project provides resources to procure equipment which, together with existing equipment at Pennsylvania State University, will establish an active vibration control laboratory. Furthermore, it will support four currently active research projects. Due to weight reductions associated with new materials and design techniques, the need to control vibrations of flexible mechanical systems has increased dramatically. These structures exhibit dynamic characteristics which make them difficult to control. These characteristics include complicated vibration patterns due to a large number of modes, low inherent damping, and closely spaced natural frequencies. The complexity and time variability of these dynamic characteristics require adaptive on line systems which can assist in identifying modal order, mode shapes, frequencies, and damping and which can be used in the design of automatic controllers which can guarantee stability and performance requirements. The four research activities which will be enhanced by this equipment include (1) active control of flexible structures, (2) active control of suspension systems, (3) active control of shock mounts, and (4) laser scanning of structural surface vibration for active vibration control.
