Structural Dynamics Research Corporation has been involved in the development and application of advanced testing and analysis techniques for improving the vibration performance of vehicles for over ten years. Techniques such as narrow band spectrum analysis, modal testing, and building block simulation have been the topic of several technical papers, 1,2,3,4,5,6 and have been widely accepted by the automotive industry as useful techniques for vehicle vibration improvement.
In this paper, the authors describe a new method of application of modal analysis and building block technology which has been made possible by advances in minicomputer software. Examples of recent projects performed by SDRC* are described, which illustrate how a test engineer can identify and evaluate various fixes to a vehicle vibration problem utilizing a minicomputer based hardware-software system in his laboratory.
SDRC engineers in the U.S., the U.K., and Europe are employing these methods today on a variety of American and foreign automobiles.