The ABRAVIBE toolbox for teaching vibration analysis and structural dynamics

Abstract

Vibration analysis is a subject where students often find it hard to comprehend the fundamental theory. The fact that we have, in general, almost no intuition for dynamic phenomena, means that students need to explore various dynamic phenomena in order to grasp the subject. For this reason, a MATLAB toolbox (the ABRAVIBE toolbox) has been developed as an accompanying toolbox for the recent book "Noise and Vibration Analysis" by the author. This free, open software, published under GNU Public License, can be used with GNU Octave, if an entirely free software platform is wanted, with a few functional limitations. The toolbox includes functionality for simulation of mechanical models as well as advanced analysis such as time series analysis, spectral analysis, frequency response and correlation function estimation, modal parameter extraction, and rotating machinery analysis (order tracking). In this paper, an overview of the functionality is given and recommended use in teaching is discussed. It is also shown how the toolbox can be used for general vibration analysis using data from multichannel measurements. Finally, some laboratory exercises for structural dynamics teaching are discussed. © The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. 2013.