Advanced model updating methods for generally damped second order systems

This thesis is mostly about the analysis of second order linear vibrating systems. The main purpose of this study is to extend methods which have previously been developed for either undamped or proportionally damped or classically damped systems to the general case. These methods are commonly used in aerospace industries. Ground vibration testing of aircraft is performed to identify the dynamic behaviour of the structure. New aircraft materials and joining methods - composite materials and/or novel adhesive bonding approaches in place of riveted or welded joints - cause higher levels of damping that have not been seen before in aircraft structure. Any change occurring in an original structure causes associated changes of the dynamic behaviour of the structure. Analytical finite element analyses and experimental modal testing have become essential tools for engineers. These techniques are used to determine the dynamic characteristics of mechanical structures. In Chapters 3 and 4, structural analysis and modal testing have been carried out an aircraft-like structure. Modal analysis techniques are used to extract modal data which are identified from a single column of the frequency response matrix. The proposed method is presented for fitting modal peaks one by one. This technique overcomes the difficulty due to the conventional methods which require a series of measured FRFs at different points of excitation. New methods presented in this thesis are developed and implemented initially for undamped systems in all cases. These ideas are subsequently extended for generally damped linear systems. The equations of motion of second order damped systems are represented in state space. These methods have been developed based on Lancaster Augmented Matrices (LAMs) and diagonalising structure preserving equivalences (DSPEs). In Chapter 5, new methods are developed for computing the derivatives of the non-zeros of the diagonalised system and the derivatives of the diagonalising SPEs with respect to modifications in the system matrices. These methods have provided a new approach to the evaluation and the understanding of eigenvalue and eigenvector derivatives. This approach resolves the quandary where eigenvalue and eigenvector derivatives become undefined when a pair of complex eigenvalues turns into a pair of real eigenvalues or vice-versa. They also have resolved when any one or more of the system matrices is singular. Numerical examples have illustrated the new methods and they have shown that the method results overcome certain difficulties of conventional methods. In Chapter 6, Möbius transformations are used to address a problem where the mass matrix is singular. Two new transformations are investigated called system spectral transformation SSTNQ and diagonalising spectral/similarity transformation DSTOQ. The transformation SSTNQ maps between matrices of two systems having the same short eigenvectors and their diagonalised system matrices. The transformation DSTOQ maps between two diagonalising SPE‟s having identical eigenvalues. Modal correlation methods are implemented to evaluate and quantify the differences between the output results from these techniques. Different cross orthogonality measures represent a class of methods which are recently performed as modal correlation for damped systems. In Chapter 7, cross orthogonality measures and mutual orthogonality measures are developed for undamped systems. These measures are defined in terms of real matrices - the diagonalising structure preserving equivalences (DSPEs). New methods are well developed for ill-conditioned system such that they work for all occasions and not only for cases where mass matrix is non-singular. Also a measure of the residuals is introduced which does not demand invertibility of diagonalised system matrices. Model updating methods are used in order to update models of systems by matching the output results from analytical system models with the experimentally obtained values. In Chapter 8, both cross-orthogonality measures and mutual-orthogonality measures are developed and used in the model updating of generally damped linear systems. Model updating based on the mutual orthogonality measures exhibits monotonic convergence from every starting position. That is to say, the ball of convergence has an infinite radius whereas updating procedures based on comparing eigenvectors exhibit a finite ball of convergence. Craig Bampton transformations are one of component methods which are used to reduce and decouple large structure systems. In Chapter 9 Craig Bampton transformations are developed for undamped systems and extended for damped second order systems in state space. Craig Bampton transformations are generalised and presented in SPEs forms. The two parts of the Craig Bampton transformations are extended in the full sizes of the substructure. The extended Craig Bampton transformations are modified to format each block of transformed substructure matrices as LAMs matrices format. This thesis generalises and develops the methods mentioned above and illustrates these concepts with an experimental modal test and some examples. The thesis also contains brief information about basic vibration properties of general linear structures and literature review relevant to this project