  The aim of this work is two-fold: to design devices for passive electric
damping of structural vibrations by distributed piezoelectric transducers and
electric networks, and to experimentally validate the effectiveness of such a
damping concept. Two different electric networks are employed, namely a purely
resistive network and an inductive-resistive one. The presented devices can be
considered as distributed versions of the well-known resistive and resonant
shunt of a single piezoelectric transducer. The technicalfeasibility and
damping effectiveness of the proposed novel devices are assessed through the
construction of an experimental prototype. Experimental results are shown to be
in very good agreement with theoretical predictions. It is proved that the
presented technique allows for a substantial reduction in the inductances used
when compared with those required by the single resonant shunted transducer. In
particular, it is shown that the required inductance decreases when the number
of piezoelectric elements is increased. The electric networks are optimized in
order to reduce forced vibrations close to the first resonance frequency.
Nevertheless, the damping effectiveness for higher modes is experimentally
proved. As well as specific results, fundamental theoretical and experimental
considerations for passive distributed vibration control are provided.
