Computing a Stability Spectrum by Use of the HHT

The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) is part of the mathematical basis of a method of calculating a stability spectrum. This method can be regarded as an extended and improved version of a prior HHT-based method of calculating a damping spectrum. In the prior method, information on positive damping (which leads to stability) and negative damping (which leads to instability) becomes mixed into a single squared damping loss factor. Hence, there is no way to distinguish between stability and instability by examining a damping spectrum. In contrast, in the present stability-spectrum method, information on the mathematical sign of the damping is retained, making it possible to identify regions of instability in a spectrum. This method is expected to be especially useful for analyzing vibration- test data for the purpose of predicting vibrational instabilities in structures (e.g., flutter in airplane wings).