Nonlinear oscillations of a nonresonant cable under in-plane excitation with a longitudinal control

The nonlinear oscillations of a controlled suspended elastic cable under in-plane excitation are considered. Active control realized by longitudinal displacement of one support is introduced in order to reduce the transverse in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations. Linear and quadratic enhanced velocity feedback control laws are chosen and their effects on the cable motion are investigated using a two degree-of-freedom model. Perturbation analysis is performed to determine the in-plane steady-state solutions and their stability under an out-of-plane disturbance. The analysis is extended to the bifurcated two-mode steady-state oscillations in the region of parametric excitation. The dependence of the control effectiveness on the system parameters is investigated in the case of the first symmetric mode and the range of oscillation amplitudes in which the proposed control ensures a dissipation of energy is determined. Although control based only on in-plane response quantities is effective in reducing oscillations with a prevailing in-plane component, addition of out-of-plane measures has to be considered when the motion is characterized by two comparable components.