Abstract

This paper addresses the free vibration, dynamic response, and the active control of composite rotating pretwisted blades modeled as nonuniform thin-walled beams, fixed at the hub at a setting angle, and incorporating piezoelectrically induced damping capabilities. In this sense, a distributed piezoelectric actuator system activated through the application of an out-of-phase electrical current is used to suppress the dynamic response of the rotating beam subjected to a Heaviside pulse. The blade model incorporates nonclassical effects such as transverse shear, secondary warping, and rotary inertias, and includes the centrifugal and Coriolis force fields. A velocity feedback control law relating the piezoelectrically induced bending moment at the beam tip with appropriately selected kinematical response quantities is used, and the beneficial effects of its implementation upon the closed loop eigenvibration and dynamic characteristics of the blade are highlighted.