Perpustakaan Digital ITB

This thesis presents research on the structural dynamic characterization of a microsatellite’s flexible panel equipped with a piezoelectric sensor. Various dynamic excitations could exert a microsatellite’s flexible panel in space. In the present work, a piezoelectric-based smart composite is implemented as a sensor to sense the panel's response due to dynamic excitation. Experimental work was conducted to evaluate the panel's response employing the piezoelectric sensor. In the present case, the panel is modeled with a flexible plate. The dimensions of the flexible plate are designed such that it can represent the natural modes of a microsatellite panel. The disturbance exerted by the satellite's body motion is defined as a base excitation employed via a shaker. A readily available piezoelectric composite in the market is used. The experimental results pointed out that the piezoelectric sensor is able to determine the natural frequencies of the plate's fundamental bending modes. The current results have been well validated with numerical results from an electromechanical finite element model with less than 7% variances in the resonance frequency values. An exciting finding is depicted as the excitation amplitude increases, and the sensor is shown to have a limitation at a particular maximum voltage value. Nevertheless, the present work shows that a piezoelectric composite in the market has the potential capability to use as a sensor while considering the dynamic characteristics only without observing another requirement, such as environmental conditions.