EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION OF A PDE-BASED APPROACH TO DESIGN OF FEEDBACK CONTROLS

Issues regarding the experimental implementation of PDE-based controll ers are discussed in this work. While the motivating application invol ves the reduction of vibration levels for a circular plate through exc itation of surface-mounted piezoceramic patches, the general technique s described here will extend to a variety of applications. The initial step is the development of a PDE model which accurately captures the physics of the underlying process. This model is then discretized to y ield a vector-valued initial value problem. Optimal control theory is used to determine continuous-time voltages to the patches, and the app roximations needed to facilitate discrete-time implementation are addr essed. Finally, experimental results demonstrating the control of both transient and steady-state vibrations through these techniques are pr esented.