Effective vibration test planning method for equipment with high slenderness ratio

Abstract

Vibration testing is necessary for functionality and durability evaluations of equipment that may undergo performance degradation due to operational vibrations. Here, we propose a planning method for the vibration testing of equipment with high slenderness ratios, such as missiles, and excitation, support, and measurement locations are important factors for the test configuration. A finite element model was used to calculate the normal modes and suitability indexes, based on the excitation and support locations. The measurement locations were obtained via the effective-independence method. Indexes of the response of dominant modes to excitation were generated for each surface through vibration testing involving various excitation, support, and measurement locations. The suitability indexes of excitation and support locations, exhibited a high correlation with the indexes of response magnitude in the dominant modes of the equipment. Therefore, the vibration test configuration can be planned effectively by exciting dominant modes of equipment under test.