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modal anlysis-understanding
modal anlysis-understanding
780695
Understanding
Modal Analysis
THE MOTION OF STRUCTURES and systems can be vis tive or normalized amplitudes of the motion of
ualized in many forms, such as the motion of cars each point in a system for each mode of vibra
and trucks on one of our nation's busy highways. tion. This relationship is known as a mode
Motion can also be thought of as relative motion shape since it describes the shape of the char
between various points in a structure or system, acteristic deformation pattern exhibited by each
such as the relative deflections which occur be mode of vibration. Therefore, the amplitude of
tween the various points on a beam which is sup the oscillatory motion of each mode of vibration
porting an applied load. Modal analysis can be at any point in a system can be described as the
used as a means for visualizing, and thereby product of an amplitude function multiplied by a
increasing our understanding of, the motions mode shape coefficient, where the mode shape co
which occur when a structure or system vibrates. efficient represents the relative amplitude of
The words "modal analysis" have several the motion at the specific point in the particu
different meanings, all of which originate from lar mode of vibration.
the principle that the motions of a structure or The amplitude functions which describe the
system can be described as a sum of motions, each amplitude of the oscillatory motion of each mode
of which has a characteristic deformation pat are similar to a frequency response function of
tern. The motion of each of these characteris a single mass-spring-damper system. Therefore,
tic deformation patterns is known as a mode of the first step in describing the motions of a
vibration, or simply, a mode. structure or system is to determine the response
The amplitude of the oscillatory motion of of a single degree of freedom mass-spring-damper
each mode of vibration is determined by the mass, system.
stiffness and damping properties of the structure
or system and the time varying forces which SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM SYSTEMS
induce the motion. However, since each mode of
vibration exhibits a characteristic deformation The classical single degree of freedom
pattern, a relationship exists between the rela mass-spring-damper system is shown in Figure 1:
ABSTRACT
This article reviews the fundamentals of system to modal properties of multi degree of
vibration theory and discusses how the concepts freedom systems to frequency response and mode
used in describing the motion of single mass superposition methods. Although these tech
spring-damper system can be extended to describe niques are not new, the intent is to present
the motion of structures and systems via modal the fundamentals of modal analysis for those
analysis. The material presented progresses not already well acquainted with the theory
from a discussion of a single mass-spring-damper and techniques involved.
2695
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Copyright © 1979 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
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Or:
Critical damping is the value of damping which
provides the highest possible rate of decay with
no oscillatory motion, as shown in Figure 3.
Downloaded from SAE International by Purdue University, Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The frequency where the magnification fac and dampers. Using this procedure, the motions
tor, or the amplitude response, of the system is of actual structures or systems may be approx
at its maximum is called the resonant frequency, imated (modeled) using only a finite number of
or simply resonance. Since damping ratios of degrees of freedom. This procedure is known as
0.15
to
0.03 for
typical
are the "lumped parameter" method.
mechanical systems and structures, the amplitude For example, consider the response of the
of motion at or near resonance will be substan lumped parameter representation of the simply
tially larger than obtained under static condi supported beam, shown in Figure 8, to a time
tions. These large amplitude motions may result varying driving force F(t).
in misalignment, high noise levels or component
failures because of the high cyclic stress var
iations resulting from the large amplitude oscil
lations.
As shown by Eqn, (9), the steady state
response of a single degree of freedom system
to a sinusoidal driving force of frequency w,
is composed of an amplitude function, X, and a
sinusoidal function of frequency w, which is
shifted by the angle ?. However, Eqn. (9) can Since the beam shown in Figure 8 is being
be rewritten as:
modeled using three coordinate variables X1,
X2, and X3, the system has three degrees of
freedom, and thus the response of the system
is limited to three modes of vibration* (one
where the amplitude function H(w) is a vector
mode for each degree of freedom). The charac
with magnitude X/Fo and phase angle ?. The teristic deformation pattern for each of these
modes is shown in Figure 9, where the amplitudes
amplitude function H(w) is known as the frequency shown for each mode shape are normalized with
response function, or transfer function. Sche
respect to the point of maximum amplitude in
matically, Eqn. (18) can be represented as: the mode.
equation involves more than one unknown variable. Substituting Eqn. (25) into Eqn. (21) and
In general, the differential equations which premultiplying by T, the transpose of the
describe the motion of a system will be coupled matrix of the normalized mode shape coefficients,
and must be solved simultaneously unless they gives the decoupled differential equations in
can be decoupled. To decouple these equations, terms of the coordinates (t).
a coordinate transformation employing a set of
generalized coordinates can be used. But since
each mode of vibration is independent of all
other modes, the specific set of coordinates
which will decouple the equations of motion is
a set of independent coordinates {n(t)}, where
each coordinate represents input amplitude from But since the matrix triple products decouple
one of the modes of vibration. Since each mode the differential equations of motion, Eqn. (26)
of vibration is characterized by a characteris now has the form:
tic deformation pattern, the amplitude of the
oscillatory motion in each mode of vibration at
each point in the structure or system is given
by the product of the amplitude function for
each mode, n(t), and the mode shape coefficient
at the specific point, Fij, where Fij, is the
normalized displacement of the itn system loca
tion in the jtn mode of vibration.
But since the overall motion of any point
on a structure or system is composed of the sum
of the motions of that point in each mode of
vibration, the relation between the coordinates
used to describe the motion of the system x1,
X2, . . .xn and the coordinates which decouple
the differential equations of motion is:
matrices are given by: are given by: dwheriagonael
the
Nr, in terms of the mode shape coefficients and and disappears with time, and a steady state
the values of force distribution function P(Xi). component. The solution for the transient com
ponent is given by Eqn. (2), subject to the
appropriate initial conditions. The solution
for the steady state component is dependent on
the driving force F(t). If the driving force
where n is the number of degrees of freedom and F(t) is sinusoidal, then Eqn. (34) becomes:*
hence the number of modes of vibration of the
system. The summation term SFirP(xi) is known
as the participation factor ???r of the force F(t)
in the rth mode of vibration. Since both the
mode shape coefficients, Fir, and the values of The steady state solution to Eqn. (35) is
identical to the solution of the differential
the force distribution function, P(xi), are
equation of motion for the single degree of
constants which are normalized, the participation
factor is a constant with magnitude between zero freedom system, i.e.,
and one. In addition, the participation factor
is independent of the amplitude of the force
F(t). The participation factor ??? can be viewed
as the extent to which the driving force parti
cipates in exciting each mode of vibration. where Xr, the amplitude, and ?r, the phase angle
This participation factor concept can be for the rth mode of vibration, are given by:
visualized by considering the pendulum shown in
Figure 13.
and
efficients, the frequency response function, the of the beam. Therefore, the normalized force
participation factor, and the magnitude of the distribution function, P(Xi), is:
driving force. The phenomena described by Eqn.
(41) can be illustrated as follows:
Or: