Actuated Truss System

This invention relates to piezoelectrically controlled devices, and more particularly to constructions wherein a piezoelectric element is attached to a structure and is electrically actuated to controllably vary the dimension, attitude or shape of the structure. It also relates to space structures, of the type wherein structural members such as trusses are assembled to provide a lightweight structure of high strength and precise dimensional tolerance.

It is well known that piezoelectric materials exhibit a change in their dimensions upon the application of an electric potential thereto. This property has been exploited in numerous prior art constructions to provide electrically controlled moving parts, for effecting motions such as resonant vibrations, small bending deflections, and sharp striking impacts. The possibility has been suggested of constructing a member of an amorphous polymeric piezoelectric material, such as PVDF, and embedding control electrodes in the material for selectively introducing mechanical contractions to control the members. It has also been proposed to construct a moving stage or holder, wherein sets of mutually orthogonal piezoelectric stacks or cylinders are actuated to vary the x, y and z position of an instrument held by the stage.

In various constructions of the foregoing types, the piezoelectric elements may be made of a crystal of high strength and relatively small piezoelectric displacement, or may be formed by sintering or otherwise unifying a mass of piezoelectric grains or powder to achieve a larger member capable of a larger displacement when electrically excited. In the latter case, the elements themselves are generally brittle or friable, and may be vulnerable to environmental degradation from factors such as heat or moisture. Applicant believes that in such larger structures of the prior art, the piezoelectric elements are used for their Property of effecting a gross change in dimensions, and they do not constitute structural members in the sense of having a precise mass, strength and dimensions calculated to achieve load bearing, tensile, bending or stiffness properties This is natural, since the mechanical properties of the most easily worked piezoelectric materials would generally be considered unsuitable for use in structural elements, i.e., as beams or trusses. To employ such materials as add-ons to an independently-designed structural system, however, is inefficient and results in dead weight. There is thus a trade-off between the competing needs for a mechanical structure of low weight and a structure which may be electrically controlled.

It is an object of the invention to provide a controllable truss member.

It is a further object of the invention to Provide a controllable truss member of high stiffness and resistance to bending yet which is environmentally hardy and of light weight

It is another object of the invention to Provide a continuous truss member having an internal Piezoelectric actuator for effecting extensional or bending movement of the member.

It is another object of the invention to Provide a composite truss member in a system wherein a passive electrical feedback loop damps the principal resonant modes of a structure including the member.

These and other desirable traits are obtained in a truss member having a tubular body with first and second ends adapted to fasten to a truss structure, wherein the body includes a cylindrical outer shell of composite material which tightly surrounds an inner shell consisting of one or more cylindrical piezoelectric elements. The piezoelectric elements are stacked end-to-end, and are attached along their outer walls to the outer shell in a manner to achieve a shear layer of minimal thickness. Electrical leads actuate the piezoelectric stack to control the truss member. Both the inner and outer shell serve as structural or load-bearing elements, and the outer shell has a stiffness which is effective to transfer the load born by the piezoelectric elements across cracks or defects in the elements and across the ends of adjacent elements, yet is sufficiently thin that relatively little energy is lost to the outer shell when the inner shell is actuated. The assembled truss has a stiffness which limits its bending deflection, and the inner stack bears a substantial portion of the axially-directed load on the truss member.

In preferred embodiments, the piezoelectric elements are radially poled, and undergo primarily a axial extension-contraction upon application of a charge. The electrode surfaces of these elements are formed on the inner and outer cylindrical surfaces of the elements. In different embodiments, half-, quarter-, or other partial cylindrical sectors of the elements have electrode surfaces along all or part of the stack, which are selectively actuated to provide bending moments to the truss in different directions. In a preferred system, at least one of the elements is operated as a sensor, and has its electrodes connected to a resistive shunt, or feedback circuit tuned to a truss resonance frequency, which returns a control signal to the piezoelectric element to effectively damp a principal truss resonance.

FIG. 1 shows a partially cut-away Perspective view of a truss member according to the invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate details of truss embodiments having piezoelectric elements with radially and axially placed electrodes, respectively;

FIGS. 2A, 3A are schematic sectional views to illustrate electrode configurations for the trusses of FIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 4 shows a radially poled truss member with partial electrodes;

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate the embodiment of FIG. 4 when electrically actuated; and

FIG. 6 shows a self-damping electromechanical truss system according to another aspect of the invention, having a passive feedback network.

FIG. 1 shows a truss member 1 according to the invention having end pieces 2, 3 which couple the truss into a structure 10 which illustratively consists of one or more other interconnected structural members 12 which collectively form a truss. Truss member 1 includes an outer cylindrical shell 4 which extends in an unbroken manner between the endpieces, and a plurality of cylindrical piezoelectrically active elements 5 which are stacked end-to-end with contacting end faces 5a to form an axially juxtaposed inner column of elements, collectively denoted 7, which also extends between the endpieces 2, 3. The outer shell is tightly fitted about and bonded to each of the elements 5, so that axial strain in the elements 5 is effectively coupled to the surrounding shell 4.

The shell 4 is formed of a composite material, consisting of fibers, or fabric made of fibers, which have a high tensile strength and which are embedded in a hardened medium such as an epoxy or other highly polymerized material. Examples of such fibers are single crystal carbon or boron fibers. The shell 4 is preferably composed of plural separate fiber-based layers or plies of material 6a...6e, which may be arranged with different fiber orientations to achieve an isotropic uniformity of strength, shear modulus, stiffness and the like. Shell 4 is preferably also of a sufficient thickness so that it effectively couples axial strains between portions of the piezoelectric stack 5 across any pits, cracks and discontinuities, as well as across the element-to-element endface boundaries 5a. With this construction the truss member 1 has a radially-varying but axially homogeneous composition which allows its mechanical properties to be readily measured, and its structural mechanics in a truss structure of different lengths to be modeled and predicted. For example, its resonant modes are readily calculated from the basic physical parameters of its materials, or may be measured by spectral analysis of the outputs of the piezoelectric elements.

FIG. 2 illustrates a detail of construction of a first embodiment 20 of the invention similar to that illustrated in FIG. 1. A truss 20 according to this aspect was constructed using a stack of cylindrical piezoelectric elements 22 each having dimensions of 1.985" length by 1.00" diameter by 0.033" wall thickness. The cylinders were radially poled, with the electrode polarity indicated in the Figure by an arrow 26, and the inner and outer cylinder surfaces were each entirely metallized with a silver electrode surface 24, 25. The parallel electrodes were thus separated by only 0.033". The cylinders were formed of a ceramic material sold by Vernitron Piezoelectric Co. as their PZT-5H material. Other prototype embodiments used a somewhat thicker cylinder of PZT-4 material formed in cylinders 1.5" long with 0.125" wall thickness, and having action characteristics of 1.137 E.sub.-8 in/volt and 0.484 E.sub.-8 in/volt along its d.sub.33 and d.sub.13 directions, respectively. The truss member 20 was assembled by successively soldering an electrode lead to each face of a cylinder, sliding it over a temporary mandrel having a slot to accommodate the inside electrode lead, and cementing the cylinder end-on to the previous cylinder of the stack, until a stack of the desired length was attained. The assembled stack was then placed in a clamping assembly until the cement hardened, after which a cold-cure glass/epoxy shell composed of 6 plies of material totalling 0.030" thick was built around the piezoelectric stack to form the outer shell 25 bonded to the inner stack.

In this embodiment, the shell material had a modulus of elasticity approximately equal to that of the piezoelectric cylinder, so that an effective and durable coupling was obtained between the outer surface of the stack and the shell inner surface. The overall stiffness of the shell was comparable to that of the stack, although with different fibers and binders the shell might be several times as stiff.

FIG. 3 illustrates a corresponding detail of a different embodiment 30 wherein the Piezoelectric elements 32 are cylinders of a relatively more washer-shaped aspect. In a prototype construction of this embodiment, the electrode surfaces 34, 35 are axially opposed upper and lower surfaces spaced approximately 25" apart, and the radially inner and outer surface 36, 37 of each washer are not metallized In this embodiment, relatively higher actuation voltages are required due to the thicker electrode spacing. Also, the fabrication of an electrode actuation bus or wiring harness is more complex, and the overall weight is greater than with the construction of FIG. 2; however, greater loads may be accommodated due to the increased cross-sectional area of the actuator stack.

FIGS. 2A, 3A shows schematic cross-sectional views of trusses 20, 30 constructed with an inner column composed of the piezoelectric elements of FIGS. 2, 3, respectively. The basic construction in each case involves a pair of end caps 41a, 41b (or 51a, 51b), with both the piezoelectric stack 42, (52) and the surrounding composite shell held in load-bearing relation between the caps. As shown, each end cap has a shoulder portion 46 (56) contacting the shell and the stack in a thrust-transmitting relationship. More generally, the shell may extend beyond the stack ends, and the caps may contact only the shell, with the load being distributed via the end portions of the shell to both the stack and shell in the intermediate portion of the truss member. FIG. 3A additionally shows a tube 54 which in this embodiment is used as a mandrel for assembly of the stack. Threaded connectors 55 are affixed to the tube to allow the end caps 51a, 51b to be screwed down into a load-transmitting position, and to force-bias the stack elements in compression

In the embodiment of FIG. 2A, two electrode buses 27, 28 connected to the interior and exterior electrodes, respectively, pass through an end cap to a control unit. In the embodiment of FIG. 3A, the electrode structure is more complex due to the axial polling of the elements In this case, the stack 52 is formed of a number of pairs of adjacent elements of opposed polarity, with one electrode lead attached to the common face of each pair, and a lead of opposite polarity attached to the next higher or lower common face. The direction of Polarity of each disc is indicated by a polarity arrow 26. The Figure shows n+1 electrode wires for a stack of n elements, each of which is connected to a(+) or a(-) bus, thus having only two lead-out connections.

FIG. 4 shows a different embodiment of a piezoelectrically controllable truss member 60, having an overall construction similar to those of FIGS. 1 and 2A. In this embodiment, the individual piezoelectric elements 61 of the stack are radially poled but, rather than having their entire inner and outer surface each formed as a single electrode, at least one of the surfaces has a metallized partial electrode surface which extends only around a partial circumference of the element. For ease of illustration, element 61 is shown having a continuous inner electrode surface 62, and an outer electrode surface 63 illustrated as covering a ninety degree sector of the outer surface, i.e., a quarter-cylinder. When an actuating potential is applied to the inner and outer electrode surfaces, the portion of the piezoelectric element within the angular segment under electrode surface 63 will expand or contact along its axis A, while the remainder of the element not directly between the two electrodes will remain in its relaxed or unactuated state.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate the effect of such actuation on the truss member. In FIG. 5A the piezoelectric stack is actuated to extend along its right hand side, resulting in a leftward bending. In FIG. 5B the stack is actuated with a reversed electrical signal to contract along its right hand side. In this case, the truss member bends to the right. The two types of actuation are accompanied by an increase and a decrease, respectively, in the truss length.

By providing disjoint inner and outer electrodes on each of the left and right hand sides of a piezoelectric cylinder, it is possible to actuate one pair of electrodes to expand one side, while actuating a different pair with a signal of opposite polarity to contract the opposite side. FIG. 5C shows the deflection produced by such a control regimen. The deflection is greater than that produced by actuating a single side with the identical voltage.

It should be understood that the illustration of an exterior partial electrode in FIG. 4 was selected for clarity of illustration. If practice, it is preferred to form the partial electrode surfaces on the inner face of each element, so that the buses for actuation lie within the cylinder, are protected by the surrounding structure and do not complicate the construction of the outer shell. Further, the invention contemplates plural such partial electrodes on a single element Piezoelectric cylinders are commercially available having their entire inner and outer surface 1 metallized. Starting with such a completely metallized cylinder, an angular array of partial electrodes is easily formed by scraping or etching lines to separate portions of a single continuous electrode into segments of the desired size and shape. Preferably, the spacing and number of such electrode segments forms an array with individual electrode elements covering angular segments of under one quarter circumference of the cylinder. In that case, by activating different segments in an axially or angularly progressing sequence, it is possible to excite a flexural or torsional wave, respectively, in the truss member as well as to achieve a static bending or twisting displacement. In a practical application, such excitation may be desired to counteract a naturally-occurring resonance, or may be used to provide a desired sweep, scan or dithering motion. Furthermore, bending motions are preferably effected by actuating pairs of electrodes at opposite circumferential locations around the truss in opposite (extensional/contractile) senses to achieve greater actuation efficiency.

In one preferred system using a truss member as shown, for example, in FIG. 1 or 2A, the principal resonance modes of the completed and installed truss structure are measured or calculated, and at least one piezoelectric element is used as a sensor to produce an output due to strain caused by a resonance mode. The output is connected by a shunt or other feedback circuit to the piezoelectric element, thus modifying the mechanical properties of the element so as to effectively damp the sensed resonance mode or alter the shape of the structure. FIG. 6 shows such a structure, for use in a passive stabilization system.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, a truss member 70 has at least one of its piezoelectric actuator elements 72 connected to a feedback circuit 74. Actuator element 72 is selected as the piezoelectric element located closest to the position of greatest axial strain for a particular resonance mode of the truss structure in which the member is assembled. The signals generated by element 72 are connected via electrodes 75a, 75b to the circuit 74, which in the illustrated embodiment contains a resistance and an inductance element selected to form a resonant circuit, together with the capacitance of the piezoelectric element, which resonates at approximately the same frequency as the particular resonance mode of the structure which it is desired to damp. At resonance, the circuit provides an amplified phase-inverted feedback signal, which drives the element in an opposite sense to that caused by the structural resonance, thus damping the original mechanical effect.

In alternate embodiments circuit 74 may comprise a simple low-resistance shunt between opposed electrodes of piezoelectric element 72. In this case, the charge generated by a strain in the truss is dissipated in the resistor. In effect, as the amplitude of a resonance mode increases, the strain-induced charge is dissipated so that element 72 becomes an increasingly lossy material under higher strain conditions. This effect damps the selected resonance. In preliminary experiments, the provision of a resistive shunt in this manner was found to provide an effective damping mechanism By employing an RL resonant shunt across the electrodes tuned to a resonant mode, the efficiency of operation was increased.

The provision of such a damping structure requires the initial measurement of truss resonance modes and the hard-wired attachment of a shunt or resonant circuit, but does not require subsequent monitoring of vibration levels or any real-time signal analysis. The circuitry is both environmentally hardy and fail-safe in its operation.

In one prototype embodiment, a five-meter long truss was constructed with truss members each having a length of about one-half meter. The structure had a principal resonance frequency of 40 Hz was constructed with a sensing/damping sensor located to receive maximal strain from the first bending resonance of the truss, which was about 40 Hz. A feedback resonator 74 consisting of a 7.29 Henry inductance coil and a 248.7 ohm resistance was coupled to the sensor, which had an inherent capacitance of 2.17 microfarads. This "tuned" the circuit to a resonance slightly above the 40 Hz truss resonance, and resulted in effectively damping the observed bending mode resonance of the truss. For smaller or stiffer truss members, significantly smaller inductance and capacitance elements can be used to achieve such passive electromechanical damping. Generally, the resistive or resonant circuit elements may be located at the piezoelectric element, within the shell of the truss member

Several factors relating to the construction of different truss embodiments are also mentioned at this point for completeness. Generally, in fabricating trusses as shown in the Figures, it is desired to provide a shell of composite material, e.g., epoxy with glass fibers, or a carbon- or boronfiber based material, which has a sufficient strength to bear a significant portion of the truss load, and to transmit the load from the end caps into the stack, and across imperfections and joints of the Piezoelectric stack, as well as to limit total bending displacements of the stack to prevent breakage or crumbling of the stack. For

piezoelectric cylinders 0.030" thick, a 0.030" thick outer shell of epoxy-glass composite was found a suitable, with the fibers laid up in a 0-90.degree. alteration to provide both axial and radial stiffness. For larger piezoelectric elements such as those shown in FIGS. 3, 3A, an outer shell construction of lesser stiffness was deemed serviceable, in view of the lesser fragility of the stack. While a thicker shell could be employed in this latter case, it was found that thicker shell dimensions result in less effective truss actuation owing to the relatively greater energy passing into the outer shell.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 3, 3A, applicant used a .+-.45.degree. ply orientation to achieve a Poison effect coupling of the radial and axial components together. This construction allows one to utilize the radial component of piezoelectric element actuation more effectively by converting circumferential expansion to axial motion.

It is to be noted that when employing a conductive composite material, such as a carbon fiber material, it is preferable to use the exterior electrode surface as a common ground for all piezoelectric elements. Partial electrode surfaces, if they are provided, are formed on the radially inner electrode. In that case it is unnecessary to insulate the elements from the composite shell, and one may allow the fibers to conductively interconnect different elements along the outer shell of the truss member.

This completes a description of the invention and certain preferred embodiments thereof. It will be understood that the invention has been described in relation to these particular embodiments for purposes of illustration only, and that it is not limited to such particular constructions, but rather encompasses within its scope diverse other constructions of like substance. The principles of construction and salient features having been the described, various modifications and variations will occur to those skilled in the art, and all such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the invention, as set forth in the claims appended hereto.