Gyroscopic stabilization of nonconservative systems

Abstract

The problem is considered of the stabilization of a mechanical system having only nonconservative positional forces by adding gyroscopic forces. The gyroscopic stabilization is proved to be always realizable in the case of a degenerate matrix of nonconservative forces and even number of coordinates. If the matrix of nonconservative forces is nonsingular then a possibility of the gyroscopic stabilization is established for all systems whose number of coordinates is divisible by four. For a nonautonomous systemwith nonconservative positional forces and dissipative forces with complete dissipation, some sufficient conditions are obtained for stabilization up to the exponential stability by addition of gyroscopic forces.