Infinite-Dimensional Control of Nonlinear Beam Vibrations by Piezoelectric Actuator and Sensor Layers

Abstract

An infinite-dimensional approach for the active vibration control of a multilayered straight composite piezoelectric beam is presented. In order to control the excited beam vibrations, distributed piezoelectric actuator and sensor layers are spatially shaped to achieve a sensor/actuator collocation which fits the control problem. In the sense of von Karman a nonlinear formulation for the axial strain is used and a nonlinear initial boundary-value problem for the deflection is derived by means of the Hamilton formalism. Three different control strategies are proposed. The first one is an extension of the nonlinear H∞-design to the infinite-dimensional case. It will be shown that an exact solution of the corresponding Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs equation can be found for the beam under investigation and this leads to a control law with optimal damping properties. The second approach is a PD-controller for infinite-dimensional systems and the third strategy makes use of the disturbance compensation idea. Under certain observability assumptions of the free system, the closed loop is asymptotically stable in the sense of Lyapunov. In this way, flexural vibrations which are excited by an axial support motion or by different time varying lateral loadings, can be suppressed in an optimal manner. A numerical example serves both to illustrate the design process and to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methods.