Control of mechanical structures by piezoelectric actuators and sensors

Smart structures based on piezoelectricity represent an important new group of actuators and sensors for active vibration control systems. This technology allows to construct spatially distributed devices. Since the design of the spatially distributed sensors and actuators becomes part of the controller design, special design methods for the controllers are required. Several well established approaches like PD-, H-2- and H-infinity-design are adapted to solve this problem. They are based on infinite dimensional Lagrangian systems in conjunction with collocated actuator and sensor pairing. Finally, applications to beams and plates demonstrate the power and effectiveness of the proposed methods.