A computational scheme for the optimal sensor/actuator placement of flexible structures using spatial H2 measures

This paper develops a spatial H-2 norm-based computational scheme for finding the optimal locations of sensors and actuators in controlled flexible structures. As the optimization index, the spatial H-2, norm of the closed-loop transfer matrix from the disturbance to the distributed controlled output is used. The design of the optimal spatial, H-2 controller is based on the reduced model of the flexible structure, which contains the dominant modes that have the largest contribution to the system's spatial H-2 norm. The proposed genetic algorithm (GA) is subsequently used to solve the resulting nonlinear optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by a numerical example on the vibration control of a plate structure. Simulation results also show that the spatial H-2 norm is a better performance index to be used in the structural vibration control when the vibration reduction is required over a continuous area on the structure. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.