Exact controllability of a Rayleigh beam with a single boundary control

It is well known that magnetic energy of the piezoelectric beam is relatively small, and it does not change the overall dynamics. Therefore, the models, relying on electrostatic or quasi-static approaches, completely ignore the magnetic energy stored/produced in the beam. A single piezoelectric beammodel without the magnetic effects is known to be exactly observable and exponentially stabilizable in the energy space. However, the model with the magnetic effects is proved to be not exactly observable/exponentially stabilizable in the energy space for almost all choices of material parameters. Moreover, even strong stability is not achievable for many values of the material parameters. In this paper, it is shown that the uncontrolled system is exactly observable in a space larger than the energy space. Then, by using a B∗-type feedback controller, explicit polynomial decay estimates are obtained for more regular initial data. Unlike the classical counterparts, this choice of feedback corresponds to the current flowing through the electrodes, and it matches better with the physics of the model. The results obtained in this manuscript have direct implications on the controllability/stabilizability of smart structures such as elastic beams/plates with piezoelectric patches and the active constrained layer (ACL) damped beams/plates.