Active Vibration Damping and Control using SMA Foil-based Devices

The damping and vibration control behaviour of shape memory alloy (SMA) foil-based devices exhibiting the one-way effect at room temperature are investigated under various pre-straining and loading conditions. The active components consist of SMA microbridges of 30 micrometer and folded SMA microbeams of 100 micrometer thickness having widths and lengths in the range of 100 to 300 micrometer and several mm, respectively. Test structures consisting of a single SMA microbridge exhibit a high specific damping capacity (SDC) of about 86% under quasi-stationary loading conditions. Active vibration damping is investigated on single degree-of-freedom damper systems consisting of SMA microbridge devices, which reveal a SDC of up to 90% in free oscillation experiments. Active vibration control is investigated on devices consisting of folded SMA microbeams allowing for reduction of excitation amplitude by 83%.