STRUCTURAL CONTROL OF THERMOELASTIC BEAMS FOR VIBRATION SUPPRESSION

The vibrations of a thermoelastic beam subject to a sudden heat input are damped by active control The control objective is specified as the minimization of a quadratic functional in terms of displacement and v elocity at a given time. The control is exercised by means of point ac tuators which are placed so as to minimize the maximum actuator force. The solution of the control problem is obtained by means of eigenfunc tion expansions. The physical problem corresponds to the suppression o f vibrations of a structure suddenly entering into the daylight zone. Numerical results indicate that the displacement and velocity of the b eam can be effectively reduced by means of active control exercised by point actuators.