Rational approximations of transfer functions of some viscoelastic rods with applications to robust control (Q1972793)

The authors deal with the damping of torsional vibrations of a cylindrical rod of circular cross-section made of a linear viscoelastic material. The corresponding boundary value problem is: find \(w(x,t)\) satisfying the equation \(w_{tt}(x,t)+2k w_t(x,t)+k^2w(x,t)=w_{xx}(x,t)\), \((0\leq x\leq\ell,0\leq t<\infty,k>0)\) with initial conditions \(w(x,0)=w_t(x,0)=0\), and with boundary conditions \(w(0,t)=w_{tt}(\ell,t)=u(t)\) (control) and \(w_x(\ell,t)=y(t)\) (observation). This problem is a wave equation with dispersion and with viscous damping. Using Laplace transform \(\widehat w(x,s)=\int^\infty_0e^{-st}w(x,t)dt\), the authors obtain the solution in the form \(\widehat y(s)=\widehat P(s)\widehat u(s)\), where \(\widehat P(s)=s^{-2}g(\beta^2(s))\) is transfer function, and \(g\) is an infinite product of linear-fractional transformations characterizing the viscoelastic material. For different choices of \(\beta(s^2)\) the authors study give the optimal approximation using a robust control, and prove the convergence of the process. For all cosidered particular cases, numerical results are presented in plots.