Exploring experimental structural dynamics in EMA/ME 540 at UW-Madison

Abstract

One of the highlights of the experimental structural dynamics course at the University ofWisconsin-Madison is a final project in which the students perform a modal test of a structure and explain how the identified modal parameters affect the performance of the structure. This is a 500 level course, typically taken by a half-and half mix of senior undergraduate students and graduate students. This paper discusses the topics that were covered in the course in the Fall of 2011 and shows highlights from the students' final projects. The different software packages that are used, both commercial and those created in Matlab for the course, are also discussed. The projects have included: a modal test on a wing in a wind tunnel to diagnose a vibration problem, a modal test of a wine glass to relate the modes of the glass to the sound that is heard when it is excited by friction between the rim of the glass and a finger rubbed around the circumference of the rim, and many others. © The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. 2013.