Vibration analysis of a guitar considered as a symmetrical mechanical system

Abstract

This paper aimed to use the symmetry that exists to the body of a guitar to ease the analysis behavior to vibrations. Symmetries can produce interesting properties when studying the dynamic and steady-state response of such systems. These properties can, in some cases, considerably decrease the effort made for dynamic analysis at the design stage. For a real guitar, these properties are used to determine the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Finite element method (FEM) is used for a numerical modeling and to prove the theoretically determined properties in this case. In this paper, different types of guitar plates related to symmetrical reinforcement patterns were studied in terms of modal analysis performed using finite element analysis (FEA). The dynamic response differs in terms of amplitude, eigenvalues, modal shapes in accordance with number and pattern of stiffening bars. In this study, the symmetrical and asymmetric modes of modal analysis were highlighted in the case of constructive symmetrical structures.