| Abstract: | ![]()
Boundary control is an effective means for suppressing excessive structural vibrations. By introducing a quadratic index of performance in terms of displacement and velocity, as well as the control force, and an adjoint problem, it is possible to determine the optimal control. This optimal control is expressed in terms of the adjoint variable by utilizing a maximum principle. With the optimal control applied, the determination of the corresponding displacement and velocity is reduced to solving a set of partial differential equations involving the state variable, as well as the adjoint variable, subject to boundary, initial, and terminal conditions. The set of equations may not be separable and analytical solutions may only be found in special cases. Furthermore, the computational effort to determine an analytic solution may also be excessive. Herein a numerical algorithm is presented, which easily solves the optimal boundary control problem in the space‐time domain. An example of a continuous system is analyzed. This is the case of the vibrating cantilever beam. Using a finite element recurrence scheme, numerical solutions are obtained, which compare the behavior of the controlled and uncontrolled systems. Also, the analytic solution to the problem is compared with the results obtained using the numerical scheme presented. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 15: 558–568, 1999 |
