NOVEMBER 01 1990

Mechanical Vibration Analysis and Computation 

D. E. Newland; Eric E. Ungar

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 2506 (1990)

https://doi.org/10.1121/1.400056

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15 December 2023 21:13:37

BOOK REVIEWS
Robert T. Beyer
Department of Physics,Brown University,Providence, Rhode Island 02912
The opinions expressed are those of the individual reviewers and are not necessar//y
endorsed by the Editor/a/Board of this Journa/.
Editorial Policy:/f there/s a negativereview, the authorof the book w/i/be givena chance to
respond to the review/n this sect/on of the Journa/and the reviewer w/i/be
a//owed to respond to the author's comments.[See "BookReviews Editor's
Note, "J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 81, 1651 (May 1987).]
Mechanical Vibration Analysis and
Computation
D. E. Newland
Wiley, New York, NY, 1989.
583 pp. Price$60.00.
As implied by its title, the book'sorientationis mathematical.Its
readersare expectedto havesomefacility with differentialequations,func-
tions of complexvariables,matrix analysisand computationalflow dia-
grams,and to possess what oneof my professors hascalleda "modicumof
mathematicalmaturity." However, the author has clearly striven to keep
the mathematicsrelativelysimpleand he hasfocusedon providinginsights
and understanding,rather than rigorousproofs.
The tone of the book is evidentfrom the first three chapters,which I
shalldelineatein somedetailhere.The firstchapter,entitled"Fundamental
Concepts,"beginswith the generalsolutionof the equationof motionof a
linear systemwith a singledegreeof freedom,subjectto a generaltime-
dependentforce,immediatelyintroducingthe topicof eigenvalues. It then
addresses harmonicexcitationin termsof complexvariablenotation,intro-
ducescomplexfrequency-response functionsanddiscusses their expansion
in partialfractions,aswell asthe meaningof negativefrequencies. It closes
with a discussionof root locusdiagrams,impulseresponses, andthe special
caseof repeatedeigenvalues.
Chapter2, "FrequencyResponse of LinearSystems,"discusses inter-
pretationof a system'sresponse in termsof its eigenvalues, relyingheavily
on partial-fractionexpansions andpolarplots.It alsoaddresses calculation
of frequency-response functionsof compositesystemsfrom thoseof their
componentsystems.Chapter3, "GeneralResponse Functions,"dealswith
the propertiesof logarithmicplotsof receptanceand mobility and intro-
ducesreciprocityin termsof mathematicalsymmetry.It presentsvarious
measuresof damping,relatesdampingto energydissipation,introduces
hystereticdamping,and presentstwo damping-related resultsof practical
importance:( 1) the time for resonantoscillations to build up, and (2) the
responseof a machineacceleratingthroughresonance.
Chapter4, "Matrix Analysis,"discusses equationsof motionin matrix
form,eigenvalues andeigenvectors, normalcoordinates, reductionof setsof
second-orderto first-orderequations,and the generalsolutionof coupled
second-order equations.Chapter5 appliesthismachineryto the determina-
tion of naturalfrequencies and modeshapes,firstof conservative, then of
damped,systems. Chapter6 dealswith "SingularandDefectiveMatrices:"
and Chap. 7, "NumericalMethodsfor Modal Analysis,"discusses compu-
tationalmethodsfor extractingeigenvalues and eigenvectors. Chapters8-
11pertainto numericalmethodsfor calculatingthefrequencyresponse and
impulseresponses of largelinearsystems, bothin thetimedomainandin the
frequencydomain.
Chapters12and 13dealwith continuoussystems, includingconsidera-
tion of normal-modefunctions,closed-formsolutions,Rayleigh'smethod,
the Rayleigh-Ritzprocedure,and six relativelylittle knowncorollariesof
Rayleigh'sprinciplethat may haveconsiderable practicalutility. The final
chapter,Chap. 14, is concernedwith parametricand nonlinearvibrations.
Flow diagramsfor the most important computationtechniquesare
presentedin a seriesof appendices. Problems,keyedto the variouschapters,
2506 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88(5), Nov. 1990 0001-4966/90/112506-02500.80
appearat the end of the book,togetherwith somesolutions. The list of
references
includesmanyclassics;it goesbackasfar asRitz's 1909paperon
variationalproblemsof mathematicalphysics,but alsoencompasses such
moderntextsasThompsonand Stewart's"Nonlinear Dynamicsand Cha-
os," (1986).
Althoughthisis a somewhatdifficultbook,whichprobablyis not well
suited for an introductoryvibrationscourse,this excellenttext deserves
carefulstudyby everyseriousadvancedstudentof mechanicalvibrations
andby everypractitionerof relatedcomputationalanalysis.
ERIC E. UNGAR
BBN Systemsand Technologies
Corporation
Cambridge,Massachusetts
15 December 2023 21:13:37
Lexical Representation and Process .
William Marslen-Wilson, Ed.
MIT, Cambridge,MA, and London,England, 1989.
xi 4-5 76pp. Price$49.95.
The bookcontainspapersfrom a conferenceon lexicalrepresentation
andprocess heldin Nijmegen,The Netherlands,from 30June-4July 1986,
underthejoint sponsorship of the Max-Planck-Institutfiir Psycholinguis-
tik and the InterfacultaireWerkgroepTaal en Spraakgedrag of the Univer-
sity of Nijmegen.The individualcontributionsappearto havebeenexten-
sively revised and brought up to date for publication in 1989. The
organizinghandof the editoris visiblein the uniformexcellence of layout
and presentation.
The generalthemeof the bookis the role of the mentallexiconasthe
centrallink in languageprocessing. Lexicalform is encodedin the speech
signaland is transmittedto the receiverthroughthe process of speechper-
ception;lexicalcontentisextractedby thereceiverby reference to the men-
tal representationsof lexicalform.The psycholinguistic studyof thelexicon
combinestheoriesof the form and contentof lexical representationwith
theoriesof lexicalprocessing. The volumeoffersa representative crosssec-
tion of researchin this vital subfieldof psycholinguistics.
The bookcontains18 chaptersby 23 contributors.The affiliationsof
the authorsgivea goodindicationof the scopeof the fieldandthe rangeof
backgrounds of the scholarsamongwhomthe dialogueis carriedon. Most
of the authorswork in an English-language environmentin Great Britain,
Canada,and the United States,and the majority of the reportedstudiesuse
Englishasthe languagein whichthe experimentsare carriedout--the ex-
perimentsthat serveasthebasisof theoreticalconclusions. Therearesome
interestingexceptions to be discussed later. All the majortheoreticalposi-
tionsin the areaare represented. The vitality of the fieldis manifestin the
fact that widelydifferenttheoriesexistsideby side,competingfor attention
in the marketplaceof ideas.
The 18chaptersaregroupedinto fourparts.Part I dealswith psycho-
logicalmodelsof lexicalprocessing. Part II looksat the natureof the input
to thelexicalprocessing
system.Part III concentrates ontheoriesof lexical
representationand their consequences for theoriesof lexicalprocess,and
Part IV focuseson the role playedby lexical representations in syntactic
parsingand semanticinterpretation.Eachof the sections containssignifi-
@ 1990 Acoustical Society of America 2506