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Question - identification of critical modes 1

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Mat_Aero

Aerospace
Mar 4, 2019
9
Hello everyone,

I have a question regarding modal / harmonic analysis. Is there any general rule or recommendation to determine which modal shapes can be critical for structure from stress point of view? I know that partially this information can be determined from modal effective mass/participation factors, but that’s not always true mainly if subject of analysis is large assembly with both large and small mass components and if a structure has some symmetric modes. Or am I wrong?

For example, let’s have assembly which contains several parts, some of them has substantially higher mass than others. Let say I am interested in frequency range of 0-2kHz in which there are 500 modal shapes. By looking at modal effective mass, I will only identify those modes, which are mostly linked to high mass components. And also, if some mode has zero modal effective mass let say in all directions, it doesn’t necessarily means that this mode will be insignificant from stress point of view. It can be easily some symmetric modal shape which produces zero modal effective mass.

My question is, if there is a way how to determine critical modes for other “small” components without examining all 500 modes individually or without including all 500 modes into harmonic/random analysis which would cause high comp. time? There is also practice that modes with very low modal effective mass are neglected and not included into list of modes on which harmonic or random response calculation is based on for speeding up the calculation, general rule I believe is at least 90% of total mass excited in all directions. But how can I be sure that those ignored modes with low modal mass are not critical for those small components from stress point of view? My main goal is to speed up harmonic/random vibration calculation by not including all of the modes but only the selection which does not cause significant error in stress results.

I hope my explanation and questions makes at least a bit sense and I would be very glad for any opinions on this topic. Thank you!

Mat
 
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Examine the support stiffness for the component in question. That together with the component mass will provide a useful estimate of its modal response independent of the overall structure.





 
Mat_Aero,

Normally, if I am designing machinery, I am interested in the lowest vibration mode. If you are interested in a series of vibration modes, I would assume you have such a specific requirement, that you need a completely custom process.

--
JHG
 
The problem is that modal mass tells you nothing about local resonances in a subsystem. For instance the modal mass of the alternator's first mode on the engine is tiny, when using a chassis excitation point, yet if you get that wrong the alternator falls off.


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
Greg,
The dominant mode of the alternator and support bracket attached to a large mass, will identify the most vulnerable mode of the alternator albeit only a crude estimate.
 
Yes but the modal mass as measured at the chassis will not be significant. That's why I asked which definition of modal mass OP was using.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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