A multiple-sensor method for control of structural vibration with spatial objectives

This paper proposes a method to control vibration of arbitrary structures with spatially weighted objectives. Multiple discrete structural sensors are distributed over a structure and a spatial interpolation method is used to obtain the estimate of vibration at any points over the structure. The method thus does not require a priori information about the dynamic model of the structure. From the vibration information provided by structural sensors, spatial signals can then be obtained, representing the spatially weighted vibration of the entire structure. A condensation procedure allows the reduction of the required number of control input channels for active control purposes. A numerical case study of a flexible plate demonstrated that the proposed method can be used for minimising spatial vibration or for achieving a desired spatial vibration profile of a structure.