In most structures, fatigue critical areas are associated with regions of high stresses. Passive stiffening of structures usually displaces these high stress regions. Thus, for most applications, active vibration control is preferred. However, the question of whether an active vibration control scheme involving a set of actuators will reduce stresses in the whole structure or create high stress areas in the vicinity of the actuators arises. In this paper, the stresses induced by an active vibration control system based on the use of an offset piezoceramic stack actuator with acceleration feedback control are investigated. Using a modal analysis of the actuator acting on a cantilever beam, a low frequency approximation of the actuator is developed in the form of a spring and two driving forces. Based on this approximation, a 3-D finite element simulation of the closed loop active vibration control system is developed and the closed loop stresses are studied.

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