Research Information System
Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol.179, no.4, pp.553-567, 1995 (SCI-Expanded)
A novel strategy for confining the vibrations to parts of a flexible structure is proposed. The method of vibration confinement consists of converting the original mode shapes of continuous systems to exponentially decaying functions. The confinement is first achieved by applying appropriate distributed feedback forces. The implementation by a finite number of discrete feedback forces is also investigated. The error introduced by replacing the distributed actuator by discrete ones is quantified by means of partitioned matrices. It is shown that this error can be controlled and if certain orthogonality conditions are satisfied it can be made zero for the controlled modes. Simulations for a vibrating string are presented to show the effectiveness of the method. The proposed strategy may be of particular use if there is interest in eliminating unwanted vibrations from certain parts of a flexible structure more than from others, or in preventing a localized excitation from propagating into certain parts. © 1995 Academic Press Ltd.