Photodeformation Based Optomechanical Shell Actuators Applied to Vibration Control of Continua: A Sensitivity Study

Abstract Photodeformation involves two fundamental opto-electromechanical coupling phenomena: 1) the photovoltaic effect and 2) the converse piezoelectric effect. Irradiating high-energy lights, such as lasers or ultraviolet lights, on certain classes of photostrictive materials can trigger the photodeformation process and the induced strains can be used for non-contact precision actuation and control. This paper is to evaluate the sensitivity and the distributed control effectiveness of distributed optomechanical shell actuators. Various design parameters, e.g., in-plane and out-of-plane control actions, actuator sizes and locations, are evaluated and their sensitivities are reported.