OPEN-LOOP VIBRATION CONTROL OF ELASTIC STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS.

This paper discusses a general technique for vibration control of simple, continuous mechanical systems. The discussion involves giving the expressions for the response of an illustrative element (fixed-free bars) to a sinusoidal disturbance and then formulating the problem of open-loop vibration control of this system as as mathematical programming problem. The final step uses numerical optimization techniques to find the control forces. When these techniques are used, the amplitude of the system's steady state response is minimized. The discussion also shows that while this method effectively controls the vibration, it has a great deal of flexibility in accomplishing its stated purpose.