The Betti reciprocity principle and the normal boundary component control problem for linear elastic systems

The background for this article is the question of modification of the geometric configuration of an elastic structure by means of “volume” type actuation. In this actuation mode stresses are applied to the elastic body by injection/extraction of a fluid into, or from, a large number of vacuoles in the elastic “matrix” material. Previous articles by the author, and others, have examined this process and studied its effectiveness in the context of a “naive” continuous model. The present paper continues along these lines, exploring “normal boundary component controllability” criterion for determining achievable configurations for the controlled system in the two-dimensional case. Connections with conformal mapping lead to affirmative results for approximate controllability in this sense and Fourier series techniques provide exact controllability results for the case wherein the domain of the uncontrolled system is a two-dimensional disk.