Uncertainty quantification of an inflatable/rigidizable torus

There is an increasing interest in lightweight inflatable structures for space missions. The dynamic testing and model updating of these types of structures present many challenges in terms of model uncertainty and structural nonlinearity. This paper presents an experimental study of uncertainty quantification of a 3m-diameter inflatable torus. Model uncertainty can be thought of as coming from two different sources, uncertainty due to changes in controlled conditions, such as temperature and input force level, and uncertainty associated with others random factors, such as measurement noise, etc. To precisely investigate and quantify model uncertainty from different sources, experiments, using sine-sweep excitation in the specified narrow frequency bands, are conducted to collect frequency response function (FRF) under various test conditions. To model the variation of the identified parameters, a singular value decomposition technique is applied to extract the principal components of the parameter change.     

Approximation of the Duffing oscillator frequency response function using the FPK equation

Although a great deal of work has been carried out on nonlinear structural dynamic systems under random excitation, there has been a comparatively small amount of this work concentrating on the calculation of the quantities commonly measured in structural dynamic tests. Perhaps the most fundamental of these quantities is the frequency response function (FRF). A number of years ago, Yar and Hammond took an interesting approach to estimating the FRF of a Duffing oscillator system which was based on an approximate solution of the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation. Despite reproducing the general features of the statistical linearisation estimate, the approximation failed to show the presence of the poles at odd multiples of the primary resonance which are known to occur experimentally. The current paper simply extends the work of Yar and Hammond to a higher-order of approximation and is thus able to show the existence of a third ‘harmonic’ in the FRF. A comparison is made with previous work where an approximation to the FRF was computed using the Volterra series.     

Frequency/time domain modeling of a direct drive point absorber wave energy converter

Two different methods to model a point absorber wave energy converter(WEC)with direct drive linear power take-off(PTO)are proposed in the present study:the frequency domain(FD)method and the time domain(TD)method.In the FD analysis,the frequency response function(FRF)of the WEC device is obtained via the equation of motion,and the expressions of power capture width in regular and random waves are derived as well.In the TD modeling,based on a state space approximation of the convolution term in the motion equation,both regular wave and random wave simulations are carried out.The regular wave simulation results indicate that the state space approximation is sufficiently accurate and the capture width reaches the maximum in the vicinity of the natural frequency.In the random wave simulations,the effects of buoy size,the PTO damping and wave climate on the power capture width are discussed in detail,which leads to the conclusion that the capture widths are influenced by the natural frequency of the WEC device,peak frequency of the wave spectrum,the amplitude of FRF and PTO damping.Furthermore,the increase of the capture width is at the cost of a relatively large buoy size and PTO damping when control is not included.     

Moment excitation and the measurement of moment mobilities

Frequency response functions (FRF), such as mobilities, are widely used in the analysis of vibration and structure-borne sound and it is important that this FRF data can be measured accurately for all important degrees of freedom. In some cases three translational and three rotational components of both excitation and response may be of importance; i.e. three forces and moments, and three velocities and angular velocities. Of these, the measurement of angular velocity due to moment excitation is one of the most challenging. This paper describes a known approach, sometimes referred to as the central difference method, which can be used for this purpose. The central difference method is thought to be one of the most practicable methods for measuring moment mobilities because it avoids the need for a moment exciter; instead finite differences are used to approximate the moment mobility which is a spatial derivative of the more easily measured velocity to force mobility ratio. There does however remain some doubt regarding the accuracy of the central difference method because of the finite difference approximation made and the method's possible susceptibility to random and bias errors. To better understand the finite difference error, an error analysis using a Taylor series expansion and simulated experiments for plate and beam structures are provided. It is then argued that random and bias errors associated with the measurement chain should now, with modern instrumentation, be less of a problem. An experimental validation of the method using two approaches is used to test this hypothesis. It is concluded that the central difference method provides a good balance between measurement effort and data quality making it widely applicable.     

Swept sine testing of rotor-bearing system for damping estimation

Many types of rotating components commonly operate above the first or second critical speed and they are subjected to run-ups and shutdowns frequently. The present study focuses on developing FRF of rotor bearing systems for damping estimation from swept-sine excitation. The principle of active vibration control states that with increase in angular acceleration, the amplitude of vibration due to unbalance will reduce and the FRF envelope will shift towards the right (or higher frequency). The frequency response function (FRF) estimated by tracking filters or Co-Quad analyzers was proved to induce an error into the FRF estimate. Using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and stationary wavelet transform (SWT) decomposition FRF distortion can be reduced. To obtain a theoretical clarity, the shifting of FRF envelope phenomenon is incorporated into conventional FRF expressions and validation is performed with the FRF estimated using the Fourier Transform approach. The half-power bandwidth method is employed to extract damping ratios from the FRF estimates. While deriving half-power points for both types of responses (acceleration and displacement), damping ratio (ζ) is estimated with different approximations like classical definition (neglecting damping ratio of order higher than 2), third order (neglecting damping ratios with order higher than 4) and exact (no assumptions on damping ratio). The use of stationary wavelet transform to denoise the noise corrupted FRF data is explained. Finally, experiments are performed on a test rotor excited with different sweep rates to estimate the damping ratio.     

Theoretical derivation of 1/f noise in quantum chaos

It was recently conjectured that 1/f noise is a fundamental characteristic of spectral fluctuations in chaotic quantum systems. This conjecture is based on the power spectrum behavior of the excitation energy fluctuations, which is different for chaotic and integrable systems. Using random matrix theory, we derive theoretical expressions that explain without free parameters the universal behavior of the excitation energy fluctuations power spectrum. The theory gives excellent agreement with numerical calculations and reproduces to a good approximation the 1/f (1/f(2)) power law characteristic of chaotic (integrable) systems. Moreover, the theoretical results are valid for semiclassical systems as well.     

A stochastic averaging method for analyzing vibro-impact systems under Gaussian white noise excitations

A new stochastic averaging method for predicting the response of vibro-impact (VI) systems to random perturbations is proposed. First, the free VI system (without damping and random perturbation) is analyzed. The impact condition for the displacement is transformed to that for the system energy. Thus, the motion of the free VI systems is divided into periodic motion without impact and quasi-periodic motion with impact according to the level of system energy. The energy loss during each impact is found to be related to the restitution factor and the energy level before impact. Under the assumption of lightly damping and weakly random perturbation, the system energy is a slowly varying process and an averaged Itô stochastic differential equation for system energy can be derived. The drift and diffusion coefficients of the averaged Itô equation for system energy without impact are the functions of the damping and the random excitations, and those for system energy with impact are the functions of the damping, the random excitations and the impact energy loss. Finally, the averaged Fokker–Plank–Kolmogorov (FPK) equation associated with the averaged Itô equation is derived and solved to yield the stationary probability density of system energy. Numerical results for a nonlinear VI oscillator are obtained to illustrate the proposed stochastic averaging method. Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) is also conducted to show that the proposed stochastic averaging method is quite effective.     

Model reduction of nonlinear systems with external periodic excitations via construction of invariant manifolds

A methodology for determining reduced order models of periodically excited nonlinear systems with constant as well as periodic coefficients is presented. The approach is based on the construction of an invariant manifold such that the projected dynamics is governed by a fewer number of ordinary differential equations. Due to the existence of external and parametric periodic excitations, however, the geometry of the manifold varies with time. As a result, the manifold is constructed in terms of temporal and dominant state variables. The governing partial differential equation (PDE) for the manifold is nonlinear and contains time-varying coefficients. An approximate technique to find solution of this PDE using a multivariable Taylor-Fourier series is suggested. It is shown that, in certain cases, it is possible to obtain various reducibility conditions in a closed form. The case of time-periodic systems is handled through the use of Lyapunov-Floquet (L-F) transformation. Application of the L-F transformation produces a dynamically equivalent system in which the linear part of the system is time-invariant; however, the nonlinear terms get multiplied by a truncated Fourier series containing multiple parametric excitation frequencies. This warrants some structural changes in the proposed manifold, but the solution procedure remains the same. Two examples; namely, a 2-dof mass-spring-damper system and an inverted pendulum with periodic loads, are used to illustrate applications of the technique for systems with constant and periodic coefficients, respectively. Results show that the dynamics of these 2-dof systems can be accurately approximated by equivalent 1-dof systems using the proposed methodology.     

Theoretical study of the time-resolved photoelectron spectrum of Na 2F: effects of thermal initial conditions

The excited state dynamics of the Na₂F cluster initiated by a femtosecond laser pulse is studied considering a thermally excited initial sample. Within a pump-probe set-up, the time-dependent photoelectron spectrum is calculated, which is shown to be a sensitive tool to study intramolecular motion of the cluster. Temperature effects are taken into account through thermal averaging over the time-dependent spectra obtained from different initial vibrational states of the cluster. The nuclear motion upon laser excitation is described by full-dimensional quantum wavepacket propagation using explicit, realistic pump and probe pulses. The characteristic features of the time-resolved photoelectron spectra of the Na₂F cluster, identified as due to periodic bending motion of the cluster as well as to the excitation of the stretching mode, are found to be robust against increasing vibrational temperature of the cluster beam. This finding is important for possible future experiments.     

Hopf bifurcation control for a coupled nonlinear relative rotation system with time-delay feedbacks

This paper investigates the Hopf bifurcations resulting from time delay in a coupled relative-rotation system with time- delay feedbacks. Firstly, considering external excitation, the dynamical equation of relative rotation nonlinear dynamical system with primary resonance and 1：1 internal resonance under time-delay feedbacks is deduced. Secondly, the averaging equation is obtained by the multiple scales method. The periodic solution in a closed form is presented by a perturbation approach. At last, numerical simulations confirm that time-delay theoretical analyses have influence on the Hopf bifurcation point and the stability of periodic solution.     

Accurate identification of the frequency response functions for the rotor-bearing-foundation system using the modified pseudo mode shape method

In this paper, an identification technique in the dynamic analyses of rotor-bearing-foundation systems called the pseudo mode shape method (PMSM) was improved in order to enhance the accuracy of the identified dynamic characteristic matrices of its foundation models. Two procedures, namely, phase modification and numerical optimisation, were proposed in the algorithm of PMSM to effectively improve its accuracy. Generally, it is always necessary to build the whole foundation model in studying the dynamics of a rotor system through the finite element analysis method. This is either unfeasible or impractical when the foundation is too complicated. Instead, the PMSM uses the frequency response function (FRF) data of joint positions between the rotor and the foundation to establish the equivalent mass, damping, and stiffness matrices of the foundation without having to build the physical model. However, the accuracy of the obtained system's FRF is still unsatisfactory, especially at those higher modes. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented methods, a solid foundation was solved for its FRF by using both the original and modified PMSM, as well as the finite element (ANSYS) model for comparisons. The results showed that the accuracy of the obtained FRF was improved remarkably with the modified PMSM based on the results of the ANSYS. In addition, an induction motor resembling a rotor-bearing-foundation system, with its housing treated as the foundation, was taken as an example to verify the algorithm experimentally. The FRF curves at the bearing supports of the rotor (armature) were obtained through modal testing to estimate the above-mentioned equivalent matrices of the housing. The FRF of the housing, which was calculated from the equivalent matrices with the modified PMSM, showed satisfactory consistency with that from the modal testing.     

A new experimental modal analysis method based on double-exponential windowing and application to lightly damped bladed wheels

In this paper, a new method is presented for experimental modal analysis for lightly damped structures such as bladed wheels. Like most of existing methods, the one proposed here is also based on frequency response functions (FRFs). An FRF can be calculated to be the ratio of the Fourier transforms of a response and a force. For a pair of force–response time-histories generated by a force hammer impacting on a lightly damped structure, an exponential window is required to apply on both the force- and response-time histories when performing the Fourier transforms. This results in an approximate of the true FRF. Using a different decaying rate in the exponential window, a second approximated FRF is produced. These two approximated FRFs, instead of one as in existing experimental modal analysis methods, are then combined to abstract modal information and recover the true FRF.     

Free vibration of a wheel

The paper is concerned with the spectral densities (direct and cross) of the multiple response records of a linear system, such as a structure, subjected to multiple random excitation. The various spectral densities of a multivariate random process are in general independent, but the response characteristics of a linear structure impose certain relationships on the response spectral densities, and these are elucidated here. The relationships depend essentially on the numbers of excitation and response components. Special relationships are shown to apply in the common enough situation where the responses of a vibratory system may be taken to derive from the contributions of a finite number of normal modes.     

Resonance response of a single-degree-of-freedom nonlinear vibro-impact system to a narrow-band random parametric excitation

The resonant response of a single-degree-of-freedom nonlinear vibro-impact oscillator with a one-sided barrier to a narrow-band random parametric excitation is investigated. The narrow-band random excitation used here is a bounded random noise. The analysis is based on a special Zhuravlev transformation, which reduces the system to one without impacts, thereby permitting the applications of random averaging over "fast" variables. The averaged equations are solved exactly and an algebraic equation of the amplitude of the response is obtained for the case without random disorder. The methods of linearization and moment are used to obtain the formula of the mean-square amplitude approximately for the case with random disorder. The effects of damping, detuning, restitution factor, nonlinear intensity, frequency and magnitude of random excitations are analysed. The theoretical analyses are verified by numerical results. Theoretical analyses and numerical simulations show that the peak response amplitudes will reduce at large damping or large nonlinear intensity and will increase with large amplitude or frequency of the random excitations. The phenomenon of stochastic jump is observed, that is, the steady-state response of the system will jump from a trivial solution to a large non-trivial one when the amplitude of the random excitation exceeds some threshold value, or will jump from a large non-trivial solution to a trivial one when the intensity of the random disorder of the random excitation exceeds some threshold value.     

非完整超晶格中电子透射问题的计算机模拟

采用转移矩阵方法,模拟研究了垒高无序和阱宽无序非完整超晶格的电子态问题.计算了垒高无序有限超晶格的透射谱和其局域态波函数以及阱宽无序有限超晶格的透射谱和本征值,直观地给出了垒高无序和阱宽无序非完整有限超晶格其电子态行为的物理图像.模拟结果表明:垒高无序和阱宽无序这两种常见非完整一维有限超晶格的子带带隙间均存在强烈的电子运动定域化,且电子波的布喇格散射对周期性势场更敏感;这两种非完整性引起的局域,通过计算电子局域态波函数和有限系统的本征值得到了证实;对本文讨论的这种类型和周期的超晶格,如果控制阱宽在9.1～10.9nm间随机变化,即阱宽的值最大相差1.8岫时,计算机模拟的结果是,阱宽的这种非周期性开始使子带的带隙消失.     

Non-stationary random response of a finite cable

Numerous problems of current concern involve the designs of aerodynamic systems which either travel at high speeds or contain structural elements which are excited by moving pressure fluctuations. In a number of recent papers responses of dynamic systems to random excitation have been considered. The appropriate theory for calculating the mean square response of linear systems to both stationary and non-stationary random excitation is well known [1–7]. In this paper, the mean square response of a finite cable to non-stationary random excitation is considered. The non-stationary random excitation is of the form s(t) = e(t)α(t), where e(t) is a well defined envelope function and α (t) is the Guassian, narrow band, stationary part of the excitation which has zero mean. Both the unit step and rectangular step functions are used for the envelope function, and both white noise and noise with an exponentially decaying harmonic correlation function are used to prescribe the statistical property of the excitation. The results obtained are shown to be a complete expression for the mean square response when checked for accuracy by reduction to expressions previously obtained by Lyon [4]. It is felt that these results will aid the design of both linear and two-dimensional aerodynamic systems excited by random pressure fluctuations.     

Stationary response of nonlinear magneto-piezoelectric energy harvester systems under stochastic excitation

Recent years have shown increasing interest of researchers in energy harvesting systems designed to generate electrical energy from ambient energy sources, such as mechanical excitations. In a lot of cases excitation patterns of such systems exhibit random rather than deterministic behaviour with broad-band frequency spectra. In this paper, we study the efficiency of vibration energy harvesting systems with stochastic ambient excitations by solving corresponding Fokker-Planck equations. In the system under consideration, mechanical energy is transformed by a piezoelectric transducer in the presence of mechanical potential functions which are governed by magnetic fields applied to the device. Depending on the magnet positions and orientations the vibrating piezo beam system is subject to characteristic potential functions, including single and double well shapes. Considering random excitation, the probability density function (pdf) of the state variables can be calculated by solving the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation. For this purpose, the pdf is expanded into orthogonal polynomials specially adapted to the problem and the residual is minimized by a Galerkin procedure. The power output has been estimated as a function of basic potential function parameters determining the characteristic pdf shape.     

Response of nonlinear random business cycle model with time delay state feedback

The steady state response and bifurcation of nonlinear random business cycle model to random narrow-band excitation with time delay state feedback are studied in this paper. The method of multiple scales is used to determine the business cycle model of modulation of amplitude and phase. The effects of delay, detuning, bandwidth and magnitude of random excitation on dynamics of the business cycle system are investigated. The results show that the complex dynamics such as bifurcation, jump domain and so on are induced by time delay and the phenomena that multiple solution or bifurcation is induced by noise.     

Vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels: The effects of finite dimensions

This paper investigates the effects of finite dimensions on the vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels. Three types of excitations are considered: acoustical excitation, point force excitation and random excitation by a turbulent boundary layer. In each case, a spatially windowed periodic model is compared with a Rayleigh-Ritz model where the modes of the un-stiffened panel are used as the basis functions. The latter model accounts for the reflected wave field generated at the boundaries by assuming that the panel is simply supported. On the contrary, the windowed periodic model only accounts for finiteness on sound radiation (the assumption of an infinite periodic structure is used to calculate the panel response). Numerical studies show that when the bending wavelength becomes comparable or smaller than the stiffener spacing, the periodic model is able to reproduce the results obtained with the Rayleigh-Ritz model. To complement the study, the developed models are compared with numerical simulations (finite element method) and with experimental results.