Linear active structures and modes (I) —Basic concepts and properties

Some basic concepts about the active structures were firstly explained, and the main subjects to study in the field of active structure dynamics were synthesized. For the linear active structures, the annotations on the modes were done in detail. The physical meanings of the right and left eigenvectors were explained. The right eigenvectors are the modal shapes and the modal responses of an active structure depend on the left ones. The adjoint structure of an active structure was defined and the reciprocity theorem was interpreted. For two active structures, which are adjoint to each other and with the reciprocal gain-matrices, the right and left eigenvector are reciprocal. The relationship between an active structure and the corresponding passive structure is expressed with the transfer functions, which is employed to resolve the estimation problems.