MODAL ANALYSIS

Modal analysis is the field of measuring and analyzing the dynamic response of
structures and or fluids during excitation. Examples would include measuring the
vibration of a car's body when it is attached to an electromagnetic shaker, or the noise
pattern in a room when excited by a loudspeaker.
- OR Modal analysis is the study of the dynamic properties of structures under vibrational
excitation.
In structural engineering, modal analysis uses the overall mass and stiffness of a
structure to find the various periods at which it will naturally resonate. These periods of
vibration are very important to note in earthquake engineering, as it is imperative that
a building's natural frequency does not match the frequency of expected earthquakes
in the region in which the building is to be constructed. If a structure's natural
frequency matches an earthquake's frequency, the structure may continue to resonate
and experience structural damage.

MODAL ANALYSIS USING FEM

The goal of modal analysis in structural mechanics is to determine the natural mode
shapes and frequencies of an object or structure during free vibration. It is common to
use the finite element method (FEM) to perform this analysis because, like other
calculations using the FEM, the object being analyzed can have arbitrary shape and the
results of the calculations are acceptable. The types of equations which arise from
modal analysis are those seen in eigensystems. The physical interpretation of the
eigenvalues and eigenvectors which come from solving the system are that they
represent the frequencies and corresponding mode shapes. Sometimes, the only
desired modes are the lowest frequencies because they can be the most prominent
modes at which the object will vibrate, dominating all the higher frequency modes.
It is also possible to test a physical object to determine its natural frequencies and
mode shapes. This is called an Experimental Modal Analysis. The results of the physical
test can be used to calibrate a finite element model to determine if the underlying
assumptions made were correct (for example, correct material properties and boundary
conditions were used).

EIGENVALUES & EIGENVECTORS

In linear algebra, an eigenvector or characteristic vector of a square matrix is a vector
that does not change its direction under the associated linear transformation. In other
wordsif v is a vector that is not zero, then it is an eigenvector of a square matrix A if
Av is a scalar multiple of v.

where is a scalar known as the eigenvalue or characteristic value associated with the
eigenvector v. Geometrically, an eigenvector corresponding to a real, nonzero

eigenvalue points in a direction that is stretched by the transformation and the

eigenvalue is the factor by which it is stretched. If the eigenvalue is negative, the
direction is reversed. Rearrange the above equation, we get;

The eigenvalues provide the natural frequencies of the system. When these
eigenvalues are substituted back into the original set of equations, the values of v that
correspond to each eigenvalue are called the eigenvectors. These eigenvectors
represent the mode shapes of the system.

VIBRATION ANALYSIS
Eigenvalue problems occur naturally in the vibration analysis of mechanical structures
with many degrees of freedom. The eigenvalues are the natural frequencies (or
eigenfrequencies) of vibration, and the eigenvectors are the shapes of these vibrational
modes. In particular, undamped vibration is governed by;

that is, acceleration is proportional to position (i.e., we expect x to be sinusoidal in

time).
In n dimensions, m becomes a mass matrix and k a stiffness matrix. Admissible
solutions are then a linear combination of solutions to the generalized eigenvalue
problem.

where

is the eigenvalue and

is the angular frequency. Note that the principal

vibration modes are different from the principal compliance modes, which are the
eigenvectors of k alone. Furthermore, damped vibration, governed by

leads to a so-called quadratic eigenvalue problem,

This can be reduced to a generalized eigenvalue problem by clever use of algebra at

the cost of solving a larger system.
The orthogonality properties of the eigenvectors allow decoupling of the differential
equations so that the system can be represented as linear summation of the
eigenvectors. The eigenvalue problem of complex structures is often solved using finite
element analysis, but neatly generalize the solution to scalar-valued vibration
problems.

STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS
Structural dynamics, therefore, is a type of structural analysis which covers the
behavior of structures subjected to dynamic (actions having high acceleration) loading.
Dynamic loads include people, wind, waves, traffic, earthquakes, and blasts. Any
structure can be subjected to dynamic loading. Dynamic analysis can be used to find
dynamic displacements, time history, and modal analysis.
A static load is one which varies very slowly. A dynamic load is one which changes with
time fairly quickly in comparison to the structure's natural frequency. If it changes
slowly, the structure's response may be determined with static analysis, but if it varies
quickly (relative to the structure's ability to respond), the response must be determined
with a dynamic analysis.

NORMAL MODE
A normal mode of an oscillating system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the
system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation. The
free motion described by the normal modes takes place at the fixed frequencies. These
fixed frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies
or resonant frequencies. A physical object, such as a building, bridge or molecule, has a
set of normal modes and their natural frequencies that depend on its structure,
materials and boundary conditions.
When relating to music, normal modes of vibrating instruments (strings, air pipes,
drums, etc.) are called "harmonics" or "overtones".
The most general motion of a system is a superposition of its normal modes. The
modes are normal in the sense that they can move independently, that is to say that an
excitation of one mode will never cause motion of a different mode. In mathematical
terms, normal modes are orthogonal to each other.

MODE NUMBERS
A mode of vibration is characterized by a modal frequency and a mode shape. It is
numbered according to the number of half waves in the vibration. For example, if a
vibrating beam with both ends pinned displayed a mode shape of half of a sine wave
(one peak on the vibrating beam) it would be vibrating in mode 1. If it had a full sine
wave (one peak and one trough) it would be vibrating in mode 2.

In a system with two or more dimensions, such as the pictured disk, each dimension is
given a mode number. Using polar coordinates, we have a radial coordinate and an
angular coordinate. If you measured from the center outward along the radial
coordinate you would encounter a full wave, so the mode number in the radial direction
is 2. The other direction is trickier, because only half of the disk is considered due to
the antisymmetric (also called skew-symmetry) nature of a disk's vibration in the
angular direction. Thus, measuring 180 along the angular direction you would
encounter a half wave, so the mode number in the angular direction is 1. So the mode
number of the system is 2-1 or 1-2, depending on which coordinate is considered the
"first" and which is considered the "second" coordinate (so it is important to always
indicate which mode number matches with each coordinate direction).
In linear systems each mode is entirely independent of all other modes. In general all
modes have different frequencies (with lower modes having lower frequencies) and
different mode shapes.

MODE SHAPE
Mode shape is the shapes of the beam at different natural frequency. This mode shape
can be determined by Eigen value of vibration equation like single or two degree of
freedom system.