Affiliations: [a] Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, SAPIENZA Università di Roma, via Eudossiana, Rome, Italy | [b] International Research Center for the Mathematics and Mechanics of Complex Systems (MeMoCS), Palazzo Caetani, Cisterna di Latina, Italy | [c] Department of Structural Engineering DIS, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Ivan Giorgio, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, SAPIENZA Università di Roma, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy. E-mail:ivan.giorgio@uniroma1.it
Abstract: This review paper intends to gather and organize a series of works which discuss the possibility of exploiting the mechanical properties of distributed arrays of piezoelectric transducers. The concept can be described as follows: on every structural member one can uniformly distribute an array of piezoelectric transducers whose electric terminals are to be connected to a suitably optimized electric waveguide. If the aim of such a modification is identified to be the suppression of mechanical vibrations then the optimal electric waveguide is identified to be the `electric analog' of the considered structural member. The obtained electromechanical systems were called PEM (PiezoElectroMechanical) structures. The authors especially focus on the role played by Lagrange methods in the design of these analog circuits and in the study of PEM structures and we suggest some possible research developments in the conception of new devices, in their study and in their technological application. Other potential uses of PEMs, such as Structural Health Monitoring and Energy Harvesting, are described as well. PEM structures can be regarded as a particular kind of smart materials, i.e. materials especially designed and engineered to show a specific and well-defined response to external excitations: for this reason, the authors try to find connection between PEM beams and plates and some micromorphic materials whose properties as carriers of waves have been studied recently. Finally, this paper aims to establish some links among some concepts which are used in different cultural groups, as smart structure, metamaterial and functional structural modifications, showing how appropriate would be to avoid the use of different names for similar concepts.
Keywords: Piezoelectric transducers, vibration and sound radiation control, electric analog, structural health monitoring, energy harvesting
