Publications Details

Exactly and Easily Applying Experimental Boundary Conditions in Computational Structural Dynamics

Bunting, Gregory B.; Crane, Nathan K.; Day, David M.; Dohrmann, Clark R.; Ferri, Brian A.; Flicek, Robert C.; Hardesty, Sean H.; Lindsay, Payton L.; Miller, Scott T.; Munday, Lynn B.; Stevens, B.L.; Walsh, Timothy W.

Most experimental setups and environment specifications define acceleration loads on the component. However, Sierra Structural Dynamics cannot apply acceleration boundary conditions in modal transient analysis. Modal analysis of these systems and environments must be done through the application of a huge artificial force to a large fictitious point mass. Introducing a large mass into the analysis is a common source of numerical error. In this report we detail a mathematical procedure to directly apply acceleration boundary conditions in modal analyses without the requirement of adding a non-physical mass to the system. We prototype and demonstrate this procedure in Matlab and scope the work required to integrate this procedure into Sierra Structural Dynamics.