Pseudo-fault induction in engineering structures: Multi-input multi-output control

In a previous paper, it was demonstrated that any linear system could be made to respond to harmonic excitation as if a static nonlinearity of specified type and position were present, this response being obtained at a single predetermined point on the structure. The method requires the excitation of the linear structure by an additional or auxiliary input. In the present paper, the theory is extended to allow the possibility of producing a specified nonlinear response at more than one point on a linear structure. It is shown that N responses can be obtained by specifying N or less auxiliary inputs. The theory is also extended to provide for polynomial damping in addition to stiffness nonlinearity. The theory is validated using numerical simulation of MDOF lumped-parameter systems.