Doctoral Dissertations
Keywords and Phrases
lunar dust mitigation; mitigation efficiency; piezoelectric; solar cell; velocimetry; vibration
Abstract
"Many engineering structures can be modeled as rectangular plates, including solar cells. Carefully controlled plate vibration can be useful to solve an engineering problem, such as lunar dust accumulation on solar cells, which blocks light and reduces power generation. For this application, plate vibration at resonance is studied and used experimentally to eject lunar dust from a solar cell.
Piezoelectric actuator placement on the inactive side of a solar cell to induce vibration dust mitigation from the active side of the cell is presented in this work. Three solar cell prototypes were created and tested for efficacy, resulting in an average of 43% of lost power reclaimed with up to 94% maximum power reclaimed after actuation. A prototype was cryogenically cycled without impedance spectrum degradation, and an energy reclamation case study result estimated 278 MJ/kg return on actuator mass cost over one year.
Vibration of a rectangular plate having completely free boundaries is analytically modeled and experimentally verified. The plate free vibration is solved using the Galerkin method and the method of modal expansion is used to solve for the motion of the plate actuated by a point force at the center. The actuator armature mass is modeled using the receptance method. Good qualitative agreement was seen between mode shapes, and good quantitative agreement was observed between plate resonance frequencies with an average analytical error of 7.2%. Single plate point coordinate frequency response functions were presented and compared for analytical, finite element, and experimental results.
The analytical and experimental forced plate vibration work is extended to model a different type of forcing: that induced by a single, rectangular piezoelectric actuator bonded to the plate at an arbitrary coordinate with the actuator edges aligned parallel to the plate edges. Average analytical error was 7.9%. This work places the foundation from which smart model-informed design of piezoactuators for lunar dust mitigation from plate-like structures may be explored"-- Abstract, p. iv
Advisor(s)
Stutts, Daniel S.
Committee Member(s)
Han, Daoru Frank
Dogan, Fatih
Pernicka, Henry J.
Kimball, Jonathan W.
Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Degree Name
Ph. D. in Aerospace Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Publication Date
Spring 2025
Pagination
xix, 204 pages
Note about bibliography
Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 65, 120, 170 and 190-202)
Rights
©2024 Jeremiah John Rittenhouse , All Rights Reserved
Document Type
Dissertation - Open Access
File Type
text
Language
English
Thesis Number
T 12472
Recommended Citation
Rittenhouse, Jeremiah John, "Vibration Modeling Of Rectangular Plates And Application To Solar Cell Dust Mitigation" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations. 3367.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/doctoral_dissertations/3367
