Advances in the Mechanics of Plates and Shells

The optimal control of flexible structures is an active area of research. The main body of work in this area is concerned with the control of time-dependent displacements and stresses, and assumes linear elastic conditions, namely linear elastic material behavior and small defor- tion. See, e. g. , [1]–[3], the collections of papers [4, 5], and references therein. On the other hand, in the present paper we consider the static optimal control of a structure made of a nonlinear elastic material and und- going large deformation. An important application is the suppression of static or quasi-static elastic deformation in flexible space structures such as parts of satellites by the use of control loads [6]. Solar rad- tion and radiation from other sources induce a temperature field in the structure, which in turn generates an elastic displacement field. The displacements must usually satisfy certain limitations dictated by the allowed working conditions of various orientation-sensitive instruments and antennas in the space vehicle. For example, a parabolic reflector may cease to be effective when undergoing large deflection. The elastic deformation can be reduced by use of control loads, which may be imp- mented via mechanically-based actuators or more modern piezoelectric devices. When the structure under consideration is made of a rubb- like material and is undergoing large deformation, nonlinear material and geometric effects must be taken into account in the analysis.