Combining the Redundancy Concept and Vibration Control for Actuator Placement in Adaptive Structures

Abstract

Actuators can be used to control the dynamic behavior of vibrating structures. The placement of the actuators in the system has a significant impact on how well adaptive structures perform. The actuator placement for damping particular modes can be assessed using the fraction of modal strain energy. Recent research in structural engineering has demonstrated that the redundancy concept is a useful tool for assessing actuator placement for quasi-static structural behavior because it provides information about the distribution of the degree of statical indeterminacy in the structure. In order to combine fundamental measures from control theory and structural engineering, the similarities between the frequency response function and the redundancy matrix are pointed out. It is shown that, by using the redundancy concept and the fraction of modal strain energy as assessment criteria for actuator placement, adaptive structures can be optimally designed to withstand both static and dynamic loadings.