Active control of resiliently mounted beams using triangular actuators

This paper is concerned with the use of triangularly shaped actuators for the implementation of direct velocity feedback (DVFB) control on a resiliently mounted beam. The effects on the stability is investigated of boundary conditions and the shape of the actuator. For practical boundary conditions, with a combination of the rotational and linear springs, it is found that the linear spring is the principal component affecting the stability and thus the control performance. The stiffness of this spring has to be high enough to approximate a simply supported boundary condition for good performance.The amplitude of the sensor–actuator frequency response function increases as the top angle and the height of the triangular actuator is increased so that control effort can be saved. However, as the height of the actuator is increased, the stability margin reduces. Therefore, for the given beam there is an actuator shape that gives the best compromise between the stability and control effort.