RIESZ BASIS PROPERTY AND EXPONENTIAL STABILITY OF CONTROLLED EULER–BERNOULLI BEAM EQUATIONS WITH VARIABLE COEFFICIENTS∗

Abstract. This paper studies the basis property and the stability of a distributed system described by a nonuniform Euler–Bernoulli beam equation under linear boundary feedback control. It is shown that there is a sequence of generalized eigenfunctions of the system, which forms a Riesz basis for the state Hilbert space. The asymptotic distribution of eigenvalues, the spectrum-determined growth condition, and the exponential stability are concluded. The results are applied to a nonuniform beam equation with viscous damping of variable coefficient as a generalization of existing results for the uniform beam