Vibration control of active structures. An introduction (Q5906921)

The main topics of this book, structural control and the application of smart materials in structures, belong to the general field of of mechatronics which can be considered as a mixture of mechanical, electronic, control engineering and material sciences, computer science and structural mechanics. The book is written for structural engineers and gives, first of all, an introduction to the feedback control of flexible structures with low damping. It has been assumed that the reader has some experience in using computer aided control engineering softwares, such as MATLAB or SIMULINK, and in the basics of dynamics, theory of vibrations and linear system analysis. The book consists of 11 chapters. Each chapter ends with a set of problems which makes the book suitable for graduate courses in vibration control of active structures. The introductory chapter 1 describes the purposes and the organization of the book, chapter 2 gives a survey of basic concepts of structural dynamics, chapter 3 deals with actuators, piezoelectric materials, active structures, and with their constitutive equations. In chapter 4, the author analyzes the stability properties of single-input single-output control systems by the root locus technique. The subject of chapter 5 is the active damping, it concentrates on the control schemes with guaranteed stability; chapter 6 describes the state-space approach and its applications to some problems. The topic of chapter 6 is the development of optimal control for linear quadratic regulators by employing the symmetric root locus technique. Analysis and synthesis in the frequency domain are presented in chapter 7. In chapter 8, the author presents an optimal control approach for multi-input multi-output systems, the analysis is focused here on those aspects which are important for the control of lightly damped flexible structures. The problems of controllability and observability are treated in chapter 9, chapter 10 contains the stability analysis of time-invariant systems. The final chapter 11 is devoted to some applications, such as the active damping of a truss structure, the active damping of plates and stiff beams, the tendon control of cable structures. An extensive list of references is given at the end of each chapter for readers seeking additional information. The book is highly recommended to students, practising structural engineers and to researchers who are interested in the vibration control and active structures.