A dual approach to substructure decoupling techniques

Abstract

In recent years, the structural dynamic community showed a renewed interest in dynamic substructuring (i.e. component coupling) techniques, especially in an experimental context. In this context the problem of propagation of uncertainty due to measurement errors was also investigated. In this paper the reverse problem is addressed: the decoupling (or identification) of a substructure from an assembled system. This problem arises when substructures cannot be measured separately but only when coupled to neighboring substructures, a situation regularly encountered in practice. Using a dual approach to substructure (dis)assembly, three substructure decoupling techniques will be derived in a unified way. Moreover, their accuracy due to measurement errors will be investigated by performing an uncertainty propagation analysis. The techniques are applied to a simulated experiment. ©2010 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.