Estimation of Dynamic Stiffness Matrix of Welded or Glued Joints Using a Laboratory Fixture

Accurate quantification of welded or adhesive joints in automotive chassis structures is necessary before reliable models can be developed. Such joints undergo shear and rotational deformations, which must be characterized via diagonal stiffness elements and cross-stiffness terms in order to describe static and dynamic problems. In this paper, a frequency domain decomposition technique is employed to extract static stiffness and viscous damping matrices of dimension 2 via analytical, computational or experimental models. Methods are applied to a laboratory fixture and alternate joints are compared.