Nomenclature

The paper investigates the problem of determining the input that is to be given to a flight vehicle structure, using the measurement of acceleration responses of the structure, based on a time domain system identification procedure The proposed technique uses the Kalman filter to obtain both the system dynamics and the input force estimates. A realistic model of the vibration exciter is also included in the overall modal formulation and a general algorithm for this purpose is evolved, which is applicable to multi-point vibration testing strategy. A uniform beam with an exciter at its mid-point is chosen as a problem representing the flight vehicle structure undergoing vibration testing. Extensive MATLAB® based simulations are carried out, which establish the fact that the proposed algorithm is capable of identifying the response and the input force spectrum with a reasonable degree of accuracy, even in the case of single point excitation