This book addresses problems in structural dynamics and control encountered in applications such as robotics, aerospace structures, earthquake-damage prevention, and active noise suppression. The rapid developments of new technologies and computational power have made it possible to formulate and solve engineering problems that seemed unapproachable only a few years ago. This presentation combines concepts from control engineering (such as system norms and controllability) and structural engineering (such as modal properties and models), thereby revealing new structural properties as well as giving new insight into well-known laws. This book will assist engineers in designing control systems and dealing with the complexities of structural dynamics.

A text/reference on analysis of structures that deform in use. Presents a new, integrated approach to analytical dynamics, structural dynamics and control theory and goes beyond classical dynamics of rigid bodies to incorporate analysis of flexibility of structures. Includes real-world examples of applications such as robotics, precision machinery and aircraft structures.

Science is for those who learn; poetry for those who know. —Joseph Roux This book is a continuation of my previous book, Dynamics and Control of Structures [44]. The expanded book includes three additional chapters and an additional appendix: Chapter 3, “Special Models”; Chapter 8, “Modal Actuators and Sensors”; and Chapter 9, “System Identification. ” Other chapters have been significantly revised and supplemented with new topics, including discrete-time models of structures, limited-time and -frequency grammians and reduction, almo- balanced modal models, simultaneous placement of sensors and actuators, and structural damage detection. The appendices have also been updated and expanded. Appendix A consists of thirteen new Matlab programs. Appendix B is a new addition and includes eleven Matlab programs that solve examples from each chapter. In Appendix C model data are given. Several books on structural dynamics and control have been published. Meirovitch’s textbook [108] covers methods of structural dynamics (virtual work, d’Alambert’s principle, Hamilton’s principle, Lagrange’s and Hamilton’s equations, and modal analysis of structures) and control (pole placement methods, LQG design, and modal control). Ewins’s book [33] presents methods of modal testing of structures. Natke’s book [111] on structural identification also contains excellent material on structural dynamics. Fuller, Elliot, and Nelson [40] cover problems of structural active control and structural acoustic control.

Dynamics of Smart Structures is a practical, concise and integrated text that provides an introduction to the fundamental principles of a field that has evolved over the recent years into an independent and identifiable subject area. Bringing together the concepts, techniques and systems associated with the dynamics and control of smart structures, it comprehensively reviews the differing smart materials that are employed in the development of the smart structures and covers several recent developments in the field of structural dynamics. Dynamics of Smart Structures has been developed to complement the author's new interdisciplinary programme of study at Queen Mary, University of London that includes courses on emerging and new technologies such as biomimetic robotics, smart composite structures, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and their applications and prosthetic control systems. It includes chapters on smart materials and structures, transducers for smart structures, fundamentals of structural control, dynamics of continuous structures, dynamics of plates and plate-like structures, dynamics of piezoelectric media, mechanics of electro-actuated composite structures, dynamics of thermo-elastic media: shape memory alloys, and controller designs for flexible structures.

Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems in Offshore Engineering is a comprehensive treatment of marine mechanical systems (MMS) involved in processes of great importance such as oil drilling and mineral recovery. Ranging from nonlinear dynamic modeling and stability analysis of flexible riser systems, through advanced control design for an installation system with a single rigid payload attached by thrusters, to robust adaptive control for mooring systems, it is an authoritative reference on the dynamics and control of MMS. Readers will gain not only a complete picture of MMS at the system level, but also a better understanding of the technical considerations involved and solutions to problems that commonly arise from dealing with them. The text provides: · a complete framework of dynamical analysis and control design for marine mechanical systems; · new results on the dynamical analysis of riser, mooring and installation systems together with a general modeling method for a class of MMS; · a general method and strategy for realizing the control objectives of marine systems with guaranteed stability the effectiveness of which is illustrated by extensive numerical simulation; and · approximation-based control schemes using neural networks for installation of subsea structures with attached thrusters in the presence of time-varying environmental disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Most of the results presented are analytical with repeatable design algorithms with proven closed-loop stability and performance analysis of the proposed controllers is rigorous and detailed. Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems in Offshore Engineering is primarily intended for researchers and engineers in the system and control community, but graduate students studying control and marine engineering will also find it a useful resource as will practitioners working on the design, running or maintenance of offshore platforms.

One of the first books to provide in-depth and systematic application of finite element methods to the field of stochastic structural dynamics The parallel developments of the Finite Element Methods in the 1950’s and the engineering applications of stochastic processes in the 1940’s provided a combined numerical analysis tool for the studies of dynamics of structures and structural systems under random loadings. In the open literature, there are books on statistical dynamics of structures and books on structural dynamics with chapters dealing with random response analysis. However, a systematic treatment of stochastic structural dynamics applying the finite element methods seems to be lacking. Aimed at advanced and specialist levels, the author presents and illustrates analytical and direct integration methods for analyzing the statistics of the response of structures to stochastic loads. The analysis methods are based on structural models represented via the Finite Element Method. In addition to linear problems the text also addresses nonlinear problems and non-stationary random excitation with systems having large spatially stochastic property variations.