VIBRATION CONFINEMENT IN FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES BY DISTRIBUTED-FEEDBACK

A method of confining the vibrations in parts of a flexible structure is proposed. The confinement is achieved by applying appropriate distr ibuted feedback forces. The method of vibration confinement consists o f converting the original mode shapes of continuous systems to exponen tially decaying functions. It has been shown that the strategy of sele cting the feedback forces, which lead to the vibration confinement, is dual to that of pole placement in the time domain control design. The method is applied to various one- and two-dimensional structures such as a string, a simply supported beam and a membrane. Simulations show that vibrations due to an impulse can be confined in a small region c lose to the location of the impulse. Finite element solution for the b eam example is also obtained and compared to the analytical solution. It is anticipated that the proposed strategy may be a feasible method for eliminating unwanted vibrations from certain parts of a flexible s tructure more than others.