Exact controllability of the suspension bridge model proposed by Lazer and McKenna (Q2566772)

The author investigates an abstract second order equation on the Hilbert space \(X=L^{2}(0,1)\) \[ \ddot{w} + c\dot{w} + d A w + k w^{+} = P(t) + u(t) + f(t, w, u(t)),\quad t\in\mathbb{R}, \] where \(c, d, k > 0\), the distributed control \(u\in L^{2}(0,t_{1};L^{2}(0,1))\) and the unbounded operator \(A\) is given by \(A\phi = \phi_{xxxx}\) with domain \[ \begin{aligned} D(A) = \{ & \phi\in X: \phi, \phi_{x}, \phi_{xx}, \phi_{xxx} \text{ are absolutely continuous,}\\ & \phi_{xxxx}\in X;\;\phi(0) = \phi(1) = \phi_{xx}(0) = \phi_{xx}(1) = 0 \}. \end{aligned} \] Moreover, \(P(t)(x):\mathbb{R}\times[0,1]\to \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous and bounded function and \(f:[0,t_{1}]\times \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function on \(t\) and globally Lipschitz in other variables. Such abstract second order equation can represent the following mathematical model of a suspension bridge \[ \begin{aligned} & w_{tt} + c w_{t} + d w_{xxxx} + k w^{+} = p(t, x) + u(t, x) + f(t, w, u(t, x)),\qquad 0 < x < 1,\\ & w(t, 0) = w(t, 1) = w_{xx}(t, 0) = w_{xx}(t, 1) = 0,\qquad t\in \mathbb{R}, \end{aligned} \] which describes vertical oscillations of the roadbed of the bridge modelled as a bending beam with simply supported ends. Using semigroup approach, a sufficient condition for the exact controllability of the mentioned abstract second order equation is obtained. Moreover, author proves that the linear part of the system is exactly controllable on \([0, t_{1}]\) and that the non-linear system is exactly controllable on \([0, t_{1}]\) for \(t_{1}\) small enough. In other words, the controllability of the linear system is preserved under the non-linear perturbation \(-k w^{+} + p(t, x) + f(t, w, u(t,x))\).