Inverse problems in vibrations. (Q705831)

This book is devoted to inverse problems in vibrations. The inverse problems in vibrations are concerned with constructing a vibrating system that has specified properties such as spectrum, eigenmodes and amplitudes of vibration. So, the problem is reduced to the determination of such parameters as mass, length and stiffness of vibrating systems. In the book the author considers the simplest vibrating systems like discrete systems, strings, rods, beams and membranes. The continuous systems are investigated by using the spectral theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert space, the theory of Green's function and integral equations, the matrix theory and foundations of functional analysis. The essential difference between inverse vibration problems and direct classical well-posed problems is that the inverse problems are ill-posed, they do not satisfy Hadamard's criterion of well-posedness providing the existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions. The inverse vibration problems may have many solutions; the solutions may not be a continuous function; it may be regions where there is no solution. The book considers such actual problem as damage identification in rods and in beams. It is shown that the vibrational behaviour of a structure may be characterized by natural frequencies and by the corresponding mode shapes. So, the variations of natural frequencies and mode shapes permit to find the damage location and intensity. But the problem is complicated, because it may be no damage pattern that would give certain set of behavioural changes; and it may be more than one pattern that produce the same set of behaviour changes; there is no guarantee that the damage parameters are continuous functions of behaviour changes. All this underlines the importance of problems considered in the book not only from the mathematical point of view, but simultaneously from the practical positions. The readers of this book clearly understand the well-known fact: the study of one topic can shed light on many other topics, even on some which at first seem to have no connection with the original topic. As the previous edition, this book is also a useful addition to the library of engineers and mathematicians working in vibration theory.