Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
This article aims at studying the controllability of a simplified fluid structure interaction model derived and developed in [C. Conca, J. Planchard and M. Vanninathan, RAM: Res. Appl. Math. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester (1995); J.-P. Raymond and M. Vanninathan, ESAIM: COCV 11 (2005) 180–203; M. Tucsnak and M. Vanninathan, Systems Control Lett. 58 (2009) 547–552]. This interaction is modeled by a wave equation surrounding a harmonic oscillator. Our main result states that, in the radially symmetric case, this system can be controlled from the outer boundary. This improves previous results [J.-P. Raymond and M. Vanninathan, ESAIM: COCV 11 (2005) 180–203; M. Tucsnak and M. Vanninathan, Systems Control Lett. 58 (2009) 547–552]. Our proof is based on a spherical harmonic decomposition of the solution and the so-called lateral propagation of the energy for 1d waves.