Affiliations: Institut für Angewandte und Experimentelle
Mechanik, Universtät Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: A. Schmidt, Institut für Angewandte
und Experimentelle Mechanik, Universtät Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 9,
70550 Stuttgart, Germany. E-mail: schmidt@iam.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract: The vibration and damping characteristics of an assembled structure
made of steel are investigated by an experimental modal analysis and compared
with the results of a finite element modal analysis. A generic experiment is
carried out to evaluate the stiffness and the damping properties of the
structure's join patches. Using these results, an appropriate finite element
model of the structure is developed where the join patches are represented by
thin-layer elements containing material properties which are derived from the
generic experiment's results. The joint's stiffness is modeled by orthotropic
material behavior whereas the damping properties are represented by the model
of constant hysteresis, leading to a complex-valued stiffness matrix. A
comparison between the experimental and the numerical modal analysis shows good
agreement. A more detailed damping model in conjunction with an optimization
procedure for the joint's parameters results in an improved correlation between
the experimental and the numerical modal quantities and reveals that the
results of the generic experiment are sound.
Keywords: Damping, constant hysteresis, finite element method, thin-layer elements
