Active vibration control by using the wave control concept

Abstract

A novel active vibration control approach using the concept of wave control is discussed. The idea is to try to change the characteristics of a system and to destroy the condition of resonance response by adding a control force at the boundary of a vibrating system. The approach is different from the modal‐space control technique, which is often used in the vibration control of space structures, especially when these structures are built from materials with low damping and are very flexible due to their large size. For the demonstration of this new wave control concept, an active vibration control model for a finite length string is discussed. An exciting force is applied somewhere on the string, and a control force applied at one end of the string is found to absorb the vibrational wave propagating to the end so that no wave reflection appears at the end and the condition of resonance response is destroyed. A beam model has also been developed. The theoretical results are encouraging and better than those obtained by means of the modal‐space control approach. The beam model of active vibration control is being investigated experimentally. [Work supported by SDIO/DNA, Contract No. DNA‐001‐85‐C‐0183.]