103

Modified independent modal space control method

for active control of flexible systems
A Baz, PhD and S Poh, MSc
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Catholic University of America, Washington DC, USA
P Studer, BSc
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,Maryland, USA

A modiJed independent modal space control (MIMSC) method is developed for designing active vibration control systems for large
flexible structures. The method accounts for the interaction between the controlled and residual modes. It also incorporates optimal
placement procedures for selecting the optimal locations of the actuators in the structure in order to minimize the structural vibrations
as well as the actuation eflort.
The MIMSC method relies on an important feature which is based on 'time sharing' of a small number of actuators, in the modal space,
to control eflectively a large number of modes.
Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the application of the method to generic flexible systems. The obtained results suggest
the potential of the devised method in designing eficient active control systems for large flexible structures.

NOTATION back gains require the solution of a coupled matrix Ric-

B partitioned matrices of the modal shape matrix
vector of modal forces and moments (N or N m)
f serious dificulties which limit significantly the applica-
F vector of external forces and moments (N or N m)
modal position and velocity feedback gains
91,2
K stiffness matrix of the system
M mass matrix of the system
N number of degrees of freedom of the system
R weighting factor
modal displacement of node i (m)
'4
ui modal velocity of node i (m/s)
U modal coordinates of the system
Greek symbols
6 deflection vector of the system (m or rad)
f acceleration vector of the system (m/s2 or rad/s2)
li. diagonal matrix of the eigenvalues of the system
4 modal shape matrix of the eigenvectors of the
system
mi resonant frequency at the ith normal mode
(rad/s)
1 INTRODUCTION
Considerable attention has been directed recently
towards the design of active vibration control systems
for large flexible structures. The strategies employed in
the design of such control systems are based primarily
on the modal control methods whereby the flexible
structures are controlled by controlling their dominant
modes of vibrations. Generally, these modal control
strategies belong to either the class of the coupled
methods (1-6) or to the class of the independent modal
space control (IMSC) method developed by Meirovitch
and co-workers (7-12). In the first class, the closed-loop
equations of the system are coupled via the feedback
control such that the optimal computation of the feed-
The M S wus received on 9 Muy 1988 and was uccepted for publication on 19
August 1988.
C02388 Q IMechE 1989 0954-4062/89 52.00
cati equation (3-6). For large flexible structures the
solution of the resulting Riccati equation can pose
bility of the coupled modal control methods. The IMSC
method avoids, however, such limitations, as the control
laws are designed completely, in the modal space main-
taining the originally uncoupled open-loop equations of
the system, as a set of independent second-order equa-
tions, even after including the modal feedback control-
lers. Meirovitch and co-workers (7-12) showed that,
under such conditions, it is possible to compute in a
closed form the optimal modal feedback gains. This
feature makes the IMSC method computationally
attractive and suitable for controlling large structures.
However, the present study is initiated to modify the
IMSC method to account for the spillover from the
controlled modes into the uncontrolled modes due to
the use of fewer actuators than the modelled modes.
The IMSC is also modified to incorporate an optimal
placement procedure that enables the selection of the
optimal location of the actuators in the structure to
ensure minimal oscillation and input control effort. A
third modification is directed towards the use of an efi-
cient algorithm for time sharing a small number of actu-
ators, in the modal space, to control a large number of
vibration modes.
With these modifications, the modified IMSC method
would provide more effective and faster control of flex-
ible system vibrations.
2 MODIFIED INDEPENDENT MODAL SPACE
CONTROL METHOD
2.1 Modal description of flexible systems
Complex flexible systems can be modelled dynamically
by a discrete finite element model as follows:
M$ + ~6 =F (1)
where
M = overall mass matrix of the structure
K = overall stiffness matrix of the structure
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104 A BAZ, S POH AND P STUDER

6, & = displacement and acceleration of the nodal much higher frequency bands than the controlled
points of the structure modes. If these two conditions are not satisified, then
F = vector of the external and control forces acting there will be considerable interaction between the con-
on the structure trolled and residual modes.
The MIMSC method considers such interaction by
Equation (1) is put in the modal space by using the calculating the optimal modal control forces fc using
following weighted modal transformation : the IMSC closed-form solution of the Riccati equation
s=4u (2) such that the control forcefi of the ith mode, as given
by reference (7), is
where
U = modal coordinates of the system
4 = system's modal shape matrix
With such transformation, equation (1) reduces to the where
following uncoupled form: R = factor that weighs the importance of mini-
U+nu=f (3) mizing the vibration with respect to the
control forces
where mi = resonant frequency at the ith normal mode
1 = eigenvalues diagonal matrix of the system ui ,u, = modal displacement and velocity respectively
f = modal force matrix given by gl, g2 = modal position and velocity feedback gains
f = given by reference (7) as
(4)
or gl= -u,R+ J{(O,R)~+U?R) (10)
+
g2 = ,/(2Roi[ - mi R + &(mi R)2 wz R ) ] + O! R )
(1 1)
Accordingly, the displacement ui and velocity u, of the
ith mode can be fed back and used along with equa-
tions (9), (10) and (11) to determine the modal control
forcef;,.
Once these forces are calculated, equation (7) is
solved to give the physically applied control forces F ,
as follows :
Fc = B,-,'fc
Then equation (8) is used to calculate the modal
where forcesf, that would excite the residual modes which are
f,, = modalforces on the controlled and residual generated by the spillover from the controlled modes.
modes respectively These forces, f R , are not equal to zero as originally
F,, = corresponding physical forces acting on the assumed in the IMSC method.
system Equations (3) can then be integrated with respect to
&ij) is the modal shape at mode i and location ij the time to determine the modal displacements ui and
The above equation can be rewritten as velocities ir, which, in turn, can be used to compute the
modal forcesf and so on.
From the modal displacements and velocities, the
physical state 6 of the flexible system can be determined
from equation (2). A relationship can therefore be estab-
If only C modes are controlled with equal number of lished between the physical state 6 of the system and the
control forces F,, then FR= 0 and equation (6) reduces physical control forces F, applied to it.
to
2.3 Optimum placement of actuators
fc = BCCFC
It is very important to point out that the magnitude of
and the modal forcesf, depends primarily on the magnitude
fR = BRC FC
of wi's of the controlled modes as well as on the modal
state variables u and u. On the other hand, the magni-
tude of the actual physical control forces F , depends
2.2 Effect of control spillover mainly, for a given controlled mode, on the application
In the IMSC method, it is assumed that the control point of these forces as defined by the matrix B;:.
forces F, will not excite the residual higher-order Therefore, minimizing fc does not necessarily mean
modes. Accordingly, it was assumed that there is no that F, will be minimum in spite of the fact that it is
control spillover from the controlled modes into the represented as a linear combination of fc . This is simply
uncontrolled modes. Mathematically, this means that because the coefficients of the linear combination, which
fR = 0. This of course can only be true if the number of are elements of the B&! matrix, depend on the place-
controlled modes is very large compared to the number ment strategy of the control forces F , . It would still be
of residual modes or when the residual modes are at possible to find an optimally placed set of physical
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 MODAL SPACE CONTROL METHOD FOR ACTIVE CONTROL O F FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS 105

control forces Fc such that the sum of the physical

~

INPUT
Geometry. elastic and inertial
displacements and control forces would assume a propertiesof structure
minimum value.
This optimum placement of the physical control
forces is an important feature of the MIMSC method
and will be demonstrated to be an essential part of the
active control system design.
It should also be stressed that if all the modelled
modes are controlled then the conditions for minimizing
fc will make Fc minimum as well. In very large struc-
tures this would be unlikely to happen as the number of
controlled modes is much smaller than the number of
modelled modes. Therefore, it is essential to augment
the IMSC method with an optimal placement algorithm
to guarantee efficient control system design.
The optimum placement of the actuators is imple-
mented through the use of the uni-variate search
method (13) which varies the location of one actuator at
a time in order to

minimize
s (ti2 + RFZ) dt

In other words, the optimal placement algorithm

(13)

minimizes the weighted sum of vibration amplitudes

and the generated control forces. The weighting factor Compute time history of all
R is selected by the designer to emphasize the impor- nodes in physical coordinates
tance of damping out the vibration over the expended
control effort when R < 1 or vice versa when R %- 1.
Equal importance of the two parameters is achieved
I
Compute the physical
control forces
with R = 1.
1
Compute the displacement, control
2.4 Time sharing of actuators in the modal space force and control energy indices

The MIMSC method also incorporates an extremely

important feature which is based on the ‘time sharing’ I
Rank the modes according to
of a small number of actuators in the modal space to maximum modal energy

control large number of modes.

Two time-sharing strategies are considered to gener-
ate the modal control forces. The first is sequential and
the second is based on the modal energy.
In the sequential time-sharing strategy, the control
forces are computed, at the first time interval, to control
the first to the Cth modes using C actuators. Then, at
the second time interval, the control signals are com-
puted so as to control the second to the (C + 1)th
modes followed by commands to control the third to
the (C + 2)th modes and so on until all the modelled
modes are controlled in this sequential fashion. Once all
the modelled modes have received their share from the
control action the cycle is repeated again. This strategy
will be shown to result in efficient vibration control of
large structures with relatively small numbers of actu-
ators when the IMSC fails to do so.
Better vibration control can be achieved when the
time sharing is based on the modal energy strategy, par-
ticularly when the number of controlled modes is very
small compared to the uncontrolled modes. In this
strategy, the system vibration modes are ranked accord-
ing to their modal energy level (91; + u:). If C actuators
are to be used, then these actuators will be dedicated, at
any instant of time, to control the C modes that have
the highest modal energy. In this way, the actuators will
first attenuate the modal energy of the controlled
modes. During that time the control spillover will excite
the uncontrolled modes. When the modal energy of the
@ IMechE 1989
I
highest modal energy modes
Change tuator
Yes
Iocati and
number
Fig. 1 Flowchart of the MIMSC computational algorithm
uncontrolled modes exceeds that of the controlled
modes the actiiatnrs are switched tn cnntrnl these hiuh-
energy modes in order to damp out their vibrations.
Such time sharing of the actuators between the modes
will eventually bring all these modes under control.
Figure 1 outlines a flowchart of the MIMSC method,
indicating the main steps of optimal placement and time
sharing of the actuators as well as the consideration of
the spillover between the controlled and residual modes.
2.5 Application of MIMSC
The MIMSC method is utilized to design active vibra-
tion controllers for flexible systems subject to specific
external loading and end conditions. The resulting
dynamic performance is compared with the perform-
ance when controlled by the IMSC in order to illustrate
the merits and potential of the MIMSC method.
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106 A BAZ, S POH AND P STUDER

Fig. 2 A spring-mass system

3 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES vibration. Such a drawback can be related directly to

3.1 Multi spring-mass system the fact that the two actuators have been utilized only
to eliminate the first two modes and once this goal has
Figure 2 shows a multi spring-mass system which is been achieved they ceased to provide any control
considered as a simple example of a flexible system. The action, as can be clearly seen from Fig. 3b. In other
main dyanmic characteristics of this system are given in words, the two actuators become completely idle in
Table 1. spite of the fact that the system is still vibrating. This
observation constitutes the main motivation for the
3.1.1 Control by two actuators with weightingfactor concept of time sharing the actuators in the modal
R = l space.
(a) Using the IMSC method The three masses of the (b) Using the MZMSC method With the time-sharing
flexible system shown in Fig. 2 are displaced initially 1, concept, the MIMSC utilizes effectively the installed
- 1, and 0 respectively from their equilibrium positions actuators such that these actuators will not cease to
and then left to vibrate under the action of an IMSC
controller with all the states observed. The controller is IMSC
designed to control the first two modes of vibrations
through the use of two actuators placed at the first and I (Mass numbers)
second masses. 0.60
Figure 3a and b shows the time history of the vibra-
tion amplitudes and the associated control forces
respectively. Figure 3a indicates that after an initial
a
U
-
z0.20
f
transition period of about four seconds, a state of limit d
cycle is attained. During this state, the first and the -0.20
third masses undergo in-phase oscillations which are of
the same amplitude and frequency. The second mass
vibrates, however, in the opposite direction at the same
frequency but at a higher amplitude. Relating such an
observation to the dynamic characteristics of the -1.00I I 1 I , , . 1 1 3 I , I
system, given in Table 1, it can be found that this limit- 0.00 5.71 11.43 17.14 22.86 28.57 34.29 40.00
ing state corresponds to the third normal mode of Time
__
vibration. Accordingly, the IMSC method has been suc- 5
cessful in damping out, as intended, the first and second
modes of vibration during the first four seconds. The IMSC
method fails, however, to reduce the excessive vibration
amplitudes of the three masses at the third mode of
2.40
1
Table 1 Dynamic characteristics of
the spring-mass system
Stiffness matrix
2.oo00 - 1.oo00 O.oo00
- l.m 2.oooO - l.m
O.oo00 - 1.oo00 2.oooO
Mass matrix
- 2.40
1.m O.oo00 O.oo00
O.oo00 1.oooO O.oo00
O.oo00 O.oo00 1.m
Eigenvalues 0.00 5.71 11.43 17.14 22.86 28.57 34.2940.( I
Time
__
0.5858 2.oooO 3.4142
S
Eigenvectors
(b)
0.5000 -0.707 1 0.5000 Fig. 3 Time history of amplitude of vibration and control
0.707 1 O.oo00 -0.707 1
forces for the spring-mass system using the IMSC
0.5000 0.7071 0.5000
method with two actuators (R = 1)
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 MODAL SPACE CONTROL METHOD FOR ACTIVE CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS 107

1.00 , MIMSC sequential

1
I (Mass number) 1 (Mass number)
0.60 0.60-

-0.60

-I.ooI
k
0.00
I 1
5.71
I I
11.43
I 1
17.14
I ,
22.86
I I
28.57
I I I

34.2940.00
1 0.00 5.71 11.43 17.14 22.86 28.57 34.29 40.00

Time
__ Time

MIMSC sequential MIMSC modal energy

2.40

-2.401

-4.00
0.00 5.71 11.43 17.14 22.86 28.57 34.29 40.00
I -2.40

-4.001
i?0.00
I I
5.71
I ,

11.43
I 1

17.14
I 1

22.86
r ,

28.57
I , .

34.29 40.00
J
Time Time
__
(b) S (b) S

Fig. 4 Time history of amplitude of vibration and control Fig. 5 Time history of amplitude of vibration and control
forces for the spring-mass system using the MIMSC forces for the spring-mass system using the MIMSC
method with sequential time sharing of two actuators method with modal energy time sharing of two actu-
(R = 1) ators (R = 1)

operate unless the vibrations of the system are com- of time, then the resulting time history of the three
pletely damped out. Accordingly, in the considered masses and the associated control forces are as shown
example, the two actuators are powered by signals to in Fig. 5a and b respectively. Figure 5a demonstrates
eliminate all the three modes and not only the first two the effectiveness of the time-sharing scheme based on
modes as in the IMSC. This is achieved by time sharing the modal energy ranking as compared to the sequential
the two actuators, among the three modes, either scheme or the IMSC method.
sequentially or based on the maximum modal energy A better quantitative comparison between the two
ranking. schemes can be established based on the displacement,
Figure 4a and b shows the time history of the vibra- control force and control energy indices U , , U , and UE
tion amplitudes and the associated control forces of the which are given by
two actuators respectively when the MIMSC utilizes a t* N
sequential time-sharing strategy. Figure 4a indicates Ud= C@At (14)
t=O i=l
that sharing the small number of actuators among a N

9 5 F: At
t*
larger number of modes has been effective in damping U, =
out the amplitudes of vibration of all the modes. Such a f=O i = l
process is done by making these actuators work as long t* N
as there is vibration to be damped out, as can be seen U, = 1 1d i F i At
r=O i=l
(16)
from Fig. 4b. This is unlike the same two actuators
which have been only partially utilized by the IMSC where
method as illustrated in Fig. 3b. N = number of d.0.f. of system
When the time-sharing strategy is based on dedicat- At = integration time increment
ing the two actuators to control the two modes that t* = maximum time limit of integration
have the highest modal energy (u: h:), at any instant + Table 2 summarizes the results of such a comparison.
@ IMechE 1989 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 203

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108 A BAZ, S POH A N D P STUDER

Table 2 Effect of the strategy of time sharing two actuators associated control forces is shown in Figs 6a and 6b
on displacement, control force and control energy respectively. The figures emphasize the same trends
indices for the spring-mass system with R = 1 observed for R = 1, however, and more importantly
Displacement Control forces Control energy show that the MIMSC method is still very effective in
Strategy index index index quickly damping out the vibrations, even with smaller
Sequential 2.44 32.36 7.14 control forces. For example, when R = 100 the control
Modal energy 2.15 13.99 3.04 forces required with sequential and modal energy time
sharing assume maximum values of 0.460 and 0.524
3.1.2 Control by two actuators with weighting factor respectively. These magnitudes are at least six times
R = 100 lower than those computed for R = 1, as can be seen in
The effect of increasing the weighting factor R to 100 on Figs 4b and 5b.
the time history of the vibration amplitudes and the Table 3 lists the effect of increasing R to 100 on the

IMSC
IMSC
I .OO
I I (Mass number) ' 0 I
6 . o
0.361

-0.36
1
i I
-0.601 l . I I I I I I . I

0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00 0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00
Time Time
__
~

S S

MIMSC sequential
I .OO
1 (Mass number)
o,36-
I I (Actuator number)

-1.00 1 ' I . I ' I ' t . I ' -0.601 . I . I , , , I , I , I ,

0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.
Time
S
MIMSC modal energy
-.
0.60

2 (Actuator number)
0.36
aJ
L
P
p 0.12
c

6
-0.12

-0.36

i2 -0.60
0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00 0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00
Time Time
S S
Fig. 6a Time history of the amplitudes of vibration of the Fig. 6b Time history of the control forces on the
spring-mass system with two actuators and R = 100 spring-mass system with two actuators and R = 100
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 MODAL SPACE CONTROL METHOD FOR ACTIVE CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS 109

Table 3 Effect of the strategy of time sharing two actuators reduction in the control force and energy indices that
on displacement, control force and control energy are more dominant than the increase in the
indices for the spring-mass system with R = 100 displacement index.
Displacement Control forces Control energy In the case of the IMSC method, changing R did not
Strategy index index index influence at all the amplitudes of vibration at steady
Sequential 8.40 1.960 5.05 state but it did, however, prolong the duration of the
Modal energy 5.03 1.462 4.03 transition time needed to eliminated the first two
modes.
Accordingly, with optimally selected weighting factor
displacement, control force and control energy indices R the MIMSC method can effectively suppress the
when the time sharing is based on sequential and modal vibration without the need for excessively large control
energy strategies. The table indicates a considerable forces.

1 (Mass number) IMSC

10
.0., , , 1 I .OO
IMSC
1

-1.00( I
0.00 11.43
1 , ,
22.86
' I' "
34.29 45.71
I ' * 57.14 ' 68.57 80.001
. I

I
!

' I ' 8 -1.00

0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.5780.00
Time
__ Time
~

S S
MIMSC sequential
I .OO
MIMSC sequential
1.00 , I

1 (Mass number)

- I . 0 0 ! . , 1 1 . 1 ' I ' I ' I ' 4 -1.00I . , . , I I 1 , I , . I .

0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00 0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00
Time Time
-

,
S
S

MIMSC modal energy MIMSC modal energy

1 .OO 1.00
I
1 (Mass number)
i

-1.00 I
0.00
I
1 I
11.43
. ,
22.86
[ I

34.29 45.71
I .
57.14
I . , ,
68.57 80.00 0.00 11.43 22.86 34.29 45.71 57.14 68.57 80.00
Time Time
__
S
S

Fig. 7a Time history of the amplitudes of vibration of the Fig. 7b Time history of the control forces on the
spring-mass system with one actuator and R = 100 spring-mass system with one actuator and R = 100
0 IMechE 1989 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 203

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 -7-
20 38) 411 t , = 0.0021 m
Element 1 Element 2 Element 3
-1
L

Table 4 Effect of the strategy of time sharing one actuator maximum amplitude of oscillation of the beam is
on displacement, control force and control energy observed to be, in this case, about 10.7 per cent lower
indices for the spring-mass system with R = 100 than that obtained with the IMSC method.
Displacement Control forces Control energy
Strategy index index index IMSC
1.753
30.00
Sequential 14.129 2,752
Modal energy 11.833 2.960 1.289 A 4 (Node number)
3.1.3 Control by one actuator with weighting factor
R = 100
To demonstrate more dramatically the effectiveness of
the MIMSC in controlling the vibration of a large
number of modes with a small number of actuators a
single actuator, placed at mass 1, is used to actively
control the three spring-mass system.
Figures 7a and 7b show the time history of the
amplitudes of vibrations and the associated control -30.001 . , . I . , . I , . , .
forces respectively as obtained by the IMSC and 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14
Time
MIMSC methods. Again the figures emphasize the
s
potential of the MIMSC, particularly with its modal MIMSC seauential
energy time-sharing strategy, as a viable active control.
Table 4 summarizes the results obtained from the 30'00 I 4 (Node number)
analysis of these figures.

3.2 Cantilever beam

3.2.1 The beam system
Figure 8 shows a steel cantilever beam modelled by
a three-finite-element model that has three degrees of
freedom of linear translation and three degrees of
freedom of angular rotations with node 1 fixed. The
beam is 0.15 m long and has rectangular cross-section
which is 0.0125 m wide and 0.0021 m thick. For this 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14
beam, the normal modes of vibrations are found to be Time
__
73, 382.6, 937.7, 1582.8, 2134.1 and 2519.0 Hz S
respectively. MIMSC modal energy
30.00-
4 (Node number)
3.2.2 Performance with one actuator
18.00-
In this example, the beam is assumed to be controlled
by one linear actuator placed at its free end, that is at
node 4. The beam is subjected to an impulsive load of
magnitude 1.0 N and duration of 0.1 ms.
The IMSC and the MIMSC, with its two time-
sharing strategies, are utilized to design the active
controller of the beam. These methods are campared as
v
to their effectiveness in damping out the vibration of the
beam, as shown in Fig. 9.
The figure indicates that the IMSC is again successful
in suppressing the lowest mode of vibration but all the
-18.00

-30.00!
1
0.00
1
0.02
. 1
0.04
.
0.06
1
0.08
. I - I
0.10
. I .
0.12 0.14
I
higher modes remain totally undamped. On the Time
contrary, the MIMSC with the modal energy time S
sharing exhibits complete control over all the modes Fig. 9 Time history of the amplitudes of transverse vibration
and effective damping is demonstrated. Also the of the cantilever beam with one actuator and R = 100
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 MODAL SPACE CONTROL METHOD FOR ACTIVE CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS 111

Table 5 Effect of the strategy of time sharing one actuator 3.2.4 Beam subjected to sinusoidal excitation
on displacement, control force and control energy
indices for the cantilever beam with R = 100 Unlike the previous examples where the flexible systems
were subjected to an initial disturbance, the MIMSC
Displacement Control forces Control energy
Strategy index ( x 10’) index ( x 10’) index ( x lo6) method is used to control the cantilever beam under
sinusoidal excitations. The excitation force is 1.0 N
Sequential 5.919 0.9081 3.205 applied at node 4 at a frequency of 10 Hz.
Modal energy 1.243 2.9000 1.596
Figure 10a shows the time response of the
uncontrolled beam. Figures 10b and c displays the
Considering, however, the MIMSC method with
sequential time sharing it can be seen that this strategy Uncontrolled
- 10.00
is not as effective as the modal energy strategy or the
IMSC method. The reasons are obvious and it is 4 (Node number)
important to cite them. Firstly, as the beam is a
six-mode system controlled by one actuator, it is
essential to utilize this actuator in the best possible way.
Dedicating it to the first mode, as in the IMSC, is found
adequate to damp out large amplitude oscillations but
inadequate to take care of the high-frequency jitters.
Using this actuator to control any mode in any
sequence without due consideration to its contribution
to the system’s vibration or energy is definitely a reason
behind the ineffectiveness of the sequential time-sharing
strategy. However, once the actuator is set to control
the highest modal energy mode then the time sharing is 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.20 0.24 0.28
efficient and fast. The second reason for the inadequacy Time
__
(a) S
of the sequential time sharing is due to the fact that as
the actuator is sequenced to control the high-frequency MIMSC modal energy (R = 100)
modes, which may have a low energy level, it leaves the
high energy modes uncontrolled. Therefore, the more
the number of modes between which an actuator is
shared, the longer it will take to go through them all
and come back to control the low-frequency modes that
may still have the high energy. The delay period in
controlling the high-energy modes increases as the
number of modes is increased and accordingly this will
prolong the time needed to actively bring the structure
under control.
Quantitatively, the comparison between the two
time-sharing strategies is given in Table 5.

3.2.3 Optimum placement of one actuator

The MIMSC method is used to optimally place a single
actuator in the considered beam system. Table 6
summarizes the effect of placing the actuator on the
displacement, control force and control energy indices.
The obtained results suggest that the actuator should
be of the rotary type and be placed at node 3. At this
-6.00-
4 (Node number)
I
location the displacement as well as the control energy
indices are minimal. The table suggests that the location
and type of actuator have a considerable effect on the
system performance, unlike what is stated by the IMSC
method.

Table 6 Effect of actuator location on displacement, control 6.001

force and control energy indices for the cantilever
beam
1 0 . 0 0 1 I
Actuator Actuator Displacement Control force Control energy 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.20 0.24 0.28
at node type index ( x lo9) index ( x lo5) index ( x lo6) Time
__
(C) S
2 Linear 1.553 18.91400 3.169
Rotary 1.555 0.02800 6.305 Fig. 10 Time history of the amplitudes of transverse
3 Linear 1.579 1.13700 1.495 vibration of the cantilever beam with one actuator
Rotary 1.242 0.00100 1.306 when subjected to sinusoidal excitation at 10 Hz
4 Linear 1.243 2.9oooO 1.596 without controller and with MIMSC controller
Rotary 1.324 0.00054 1.461
when R = 1 and R = 100
@ IMechE 1989 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 203

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112
corresponding response when the beam is controlled by
the MIMSC method with R = 100 and R = 1
respectively. It can be seen that the MIMSC damped
out all the high-frequency oscillations and attenuated
the magnitude by about half (when R = 1) that of the
uncontrolled case.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented a modified algorithm of the
independent modal space control method where control
spillover as well as optimum placement and time
sharing of actuators have been considered.
The considered numerical examples indicate the
importance of including such modifications to the
IMSC.
It is shown that time-sharing a small number of
actuators between a large number of modes can be
effective in suppressing the vibration if the actuators are
dedicated to control the modes that have the highest
modal energy at any particular instant.
The presented algorithm has the potential of being a
viable means for controlling large flexible structures.
Furthermore, it is important to note that although the
emphasis in this paper has been placed on undamped
systems, the developed procedures can be equally
applied to damped and gyroscopic systems. The system
reduction approach described by Meirovitch and Baruh
(11) can be used to compute numerically the optimal
gains of the mode to be controlled and the time sharing
can be utilized accordingly to control these damped
modes one at a time.
Also, it should be mentioned that the time-sharing
concept should be considered carefully in conjunction
with the dynamic characteristics of the actuators. If one
actuator is used to control several modes of vibrations
then its frequency band should be wide enough to cover
the desired controlled modes. Practically speaking, it
would be difficult to find a single actuator that covers
the entire frequency spectrum of a structure. Therefore,
one actuator can be dedicated to low-frequency modes
and another to medium-frequency modes. The high-
frequency modes could presumably be damped quite
easily and more effectively with passive dampers.
Future work will be carried out to implement
Part C : Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
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A BAZ, S POH AND P STUDER
digitally the MIMSC to control the vibration of a
cantilevered beam using a single piezoelectric actuator
and a single non-contacting sensor. The effect of
sampling time, state estimation, modelling inaccuracy
and control strategy will be addressed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks are due to the Space Science and
Technology Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center for providing the funds necessary to conduct this
study under Grants NAG 5-520 and NAG 5-749.
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0 IMechE 1989