Vibrations

Aerospace structures are commonly subjected to vibrations during operation. This includes harmonic loads as found in low and high-speed rotating equipment or impact loads due to collissions. For analysis and design purposes it is critical to model the response of a structure under free and forced loading conditions. This course is an introduction to vibrations in structures and covers the following topics:

1. Introduction to vibrations and modelling of structures by mapping them to a mass-spring-damper system.

2. Free vibrations of single degree-of-freedom systems

3. Forced-vibrations of single degree-of-freedom systems under harmonic and general loading

4. Free vibrations of undamped multiple degrees-of-freedom systems using modal analysis

5. Forced vibrations of multiple degrees-of-freedom systems

Fundamental concepts of structural vibrations are introduced in the course, such as discretisation of kinematic and force connectors, choice of degrees of freedom (DOF), lumped mass approach, damped and undamped natural frequencies, resonance, critical, undercritical and overcritical damping, transfer function.