RANDOM VIBRATION ANALYSIS

USING STATISTICALLY EQUIVALENT TRANSIENT ANALYSIS

Charles W. Engelhardt
Structural Dynamics Research Corporation
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200
San Diego, California 92130
ABSTRACT
An alternative approach to traditional random vibration
analysis is discussed. Recent improvements in computer
technology have made it practical to simulate random
vibration using sufficiently long transient analyses. The
transient approach uses the probabilistic definition of the
random excitations to generate sufficiently long transient
excitations which are statistically equivalent to the random
excitations. The transient simulation approach has
significant advantages in aiding the engineer to understand
the behavior of the structure in the random environment and
qualifying the structure for the random environment.
Dynamic analysis of a vehicle traversing a rough road is
used to illustrate the advantages of the transient method
compared to the traditional random analysis method.
NOMENCLATURE
FFT
1FT
PSD
Nt
M
T
lit
SRSS
RMS
forward Fourier transform
inverse Fourier transform
power spectral density
number of frequency points in a spectrum
frequency increment = delta frequency
total time (duration) of a transient function
time increment = delta time
square root of sum of squares
root mean square
INTRODUCTION
Recent improvements in computer technology enable us to
simulate transient responses of complex structures due to
dynamic excitations with many thousands of timesteps,
simulations which were impractical just a few years ago.
This is a powerful alternative to the two traditional random
simulation methods: random analysis in the frequency
domain, or random vibration testing such as a shake table
test or vehicle road test. The recently practical transient
analysis approach has tremendous advantages over the
traditional approaches.
Cross-country road surface PSD at 15 mph
1.00E+00
1.00E-01
N'
1.00E-02
:r:
;:;-
1.00E-03
:.
0
(/)
Q.
1.00E-04
'E
1.00E-05 Q)
E
Q)
u
1.00E-06
<1l
a.
(J)
0 1.00E-07
1.00E-08
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 1. Road Surface PSD is used as excitation for the
random vibration analysis.
Shake table testing simulates a random environment by
converting the random excitations to transient excitations
which are used to drive the shake table. The new computer
technology makes it practical for us to do this analytically for
large computer models. We can use the transient
excitations which previously drove the shaker table to
analytically drive the computer model. However, this
transient analysis approach is not limited by shake table
stroke limits and is not limited to base excitations. This
"virtual testing" has many of the advantages of an actual
random vibration test compared to a random analysis,
without the hardware limitations.
An example of a traditional random analysis is the
simulation of a vehicle driving over a road surface, where
the road surface is defined with a power spectral density
(PSD) function (Figure 1 ). The random analysis generates
PSD responses of requested items, such as cargo
acceleration or a particular stress component at some
structural location (Figure 2), but a combined stress, such
as von Misses stress can be calculated but the statistical
significance is not well understood.
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0.20
Cargo Vertical Acceleration PSD
N'
0.10
RMS = 0.22 g
I
;;;-
3cr =0.66 g

0
en
a.
c:
0

CJ)
Q)
0
0
<(
0.01
1---- f- -
1.0E-3


2.0E-4
0.0

..
5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0
<il
CD
.t::.
0
,
c
CJ)
E
CJ)
[il
a.
.!!l
0
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 2. Acceleration PSD is a typical result
of a random Analysis.
:
c:
0

CJ)
Q)
0
0
<(
-2.0 \i
I
-4.0
0.0 10.0 20.0 25.0
Time (seconds)
Figure 3. Road Surface profile is used as
excitation for the transient analysis.
1.00
0.50
0.00
-0.50
Cargo Vertical Acceleration
RMS =0.22 g
Pea =O.ng
-1.00 ____ _j_ __ _j
0.0 10.0 20.0 25.0
Time (seconds)
Figure 4. RMS of the transient acceleration response is
equivalent to RMS of the random response.
Alternatively, the transient approach uses a transient
excitation (Figure 3) with the frequency content equivalent to
the specified road surface PSD. Transient structural
responses are computed, from which standard deviations
and PSD functions can be computed equivalent to the
random analysis results. (Figure 4) Additionally, transient
results may also be recovered which are not available from
the random analysis, such as a deformed shape at a
time that the peak stress occurred (Figure 5). The
trans1ent approach has the advantage over the traditional
random approach by providing additional insight into the
structure's physical response to the random excitations.
Deformed shape at 4.45 sec
Figure 5. Deformed shape from the transient analysis is
useful for understanding causes of peak stresses
in the random environment.
TRANSIENT VS. RANDOM ANALYSES
The traditional random analysis calculates the responses in
the frequency domain. Then peak values are calculated for
an assumed probability level, such as 3-sigma. Responses
due to simultaneous random excitations are typically
combined using some method such as SRSS. Also,
response spectra are typically approximated from the
random responses using Mile's equation.
The transient approach to random analysis uses excitations
which have frequency content defined by the random PSD
and correlation functions. The PSD functions define the
amplitude at each excitation. The PSD functions are
normally interpolated so that the number of spectral lines
(Nt) in the PSD and the spacing between each spectral line
result in the desired timestep and duration for the
resulting transient excitations, according to the standard 1FT
procedure. A reference excitation is chosen for which
random phasing is defined at each spectral line. The use of
random phasing results in a Gaussian transient excitation
assuming the number of spectral lines is large and none
dominant, according to the central limit theorem. Phasing of
the additional excitations is created relative to the reference
excitation using the given correlation functions. The
transient excitations are then calculated from these
amplitude and phasing functions using the inverse Fourier
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transform (1FT). Then the transient simulation is performed
to generate the desired transient structural responses.
The root-mean-squared (RMS) value may be calculated
directly from the transient results, which will be equivalent to
the RMS value computed from the traditional random
analysis, assuming reasonable transient duration and
timestep values were used. The new computer technology
makes it practical to conservatively choose a long duration
and short timestep for the transient analysis. If conservative
values for the transient timestep and duration are used, then
differences between RMS values from the transient
responses and RMS values from the random analysis will be
insignificant compared with uncertainties due to modeling,
damping, and forcing function assumptions.
Transient displacement responses may be used to animate
the structural response to the random environment.
Transient results may also be computed which are not
available from the random analysis, such as combined
stresses, which are useful for the engineer to evaluate his
structure.
ADVANTAGES OF THE TRANSIENT APPROACH
Similar to a random vibration test, the transient approach
has many advantages over traditional random analysis
because the analysis is done in the time domain rather than
the frequency domain. These advantages include:
(1) The analyst has greater visibility into the physical
behavior of the structure in the random environment.
The analyst can literally animate the structural response
due to the random excitations. This visibility also
includes insight into combined responses, such as von
Mises stress, which are directly available from the
transient analysis. Combined responses such as von
Mises stress are difficult to calculate from traditional
random analyses and the statistical significance is not
well understood.
(2) Responses due to simultaneous random excitations are
typically combined using some method such as SASS.
These excitations may be applied simultaneously in the
transient approach using an estimate of the correlation
(or lack of correlation) of these excitations.
(3) Response spectra can be calculated directly from the
transient results without the approximations involved in
using Mile's equation to convert PSD functions to a
response spectra.
(4) Nonlinear effects can be included in direct transient
solutions, resulting in a more accurate calculation of
responses to the random excitations.
GUIDELINES FOR CONVERTING RANDOM EXCITATIONS
TO TRANSIENT EXCITATIONS
The transient excitations are simply calculated from the
random PSD and correlation functions using the inverse
Fourier transform (1FT). The number of spectral lines (Nt) in
the PSD, and the frequency increment between the lines (M)
should be set appropriately to achieve the desired transient
timestep and duration. This results in excitation functions
with frequency content equivalent to the random PSD
functions. An outline of the steps follows:
(1) The desired transient excitation duration (T) and
timestep ~ t ) must be chosen. These are subjective,
but generally the duration should be long enough to
include 20 - 100 cycles of the lowest frequency of
interest. The lowest frequency of interest may be
defined by the lowest frequency of the excitation, or
may be the lowest structural mode of interest. The
timestep should be short enough so that at least 5 - 1 0
timesteps occur within one cycle of the highest
frequency of interest.
(2) The random excitation PSD should be interpolated to
produce the required frequency increment (M) and total
number of spectral lines (Nt). The required frequency
increment is the inverse of the desired transient
duration and the number of spectral lines is half of the
number of timesteps in the transient excitation.
(3) For each excitation, the appropriate PSD and
correlation function(s) are used to create a complex
(amplitude and phase) function. Calculate the
amplitude of each excitation spectrum from the PSD by
multiplying the PSD by the frequency increment (M) and
taking the square root.
(4) Pick one of the excitations to be the "reference
excitation", and use a random number generator to
generate a random phase angle at each spectral line of
the reference excitation.
(5) Define the phase part of every other excitation relative
to the reference excitation using the appropriate
correlation functions. For example, for the vehicle road
test, road surface excitation under a rear tire is phase
shifted behind the front tires based on the vehicle
speed, axle spacing, and frequency of the spectral line.
(6) Convert each of the complex excitation functions to a
transient excitation using the I FT.
(7) Window the excitation functions as desired to eliminate
the initial non-zero values and slopes. If not eliminated,
the initial non-zero values may generate initial high-
frequency "spikes" in the transient response. A cosine
taper window applied to the initial and final 1% of the
excitation is recommended. See reference [1] for a
description of a cosine window.
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(8) Perform the transient analysis using these excitations.
The timestep and duration of the excitations are
appropriate for the transient solution. To verify that the
excitations were created without error, the RMS values
for each excitation should be calculated from the
transient analysis results and compared with the RMS
values of the original random PSD functions.
CONCLUSIONS
Current computer technology enables transient simulations
of complex models which were computationally prohibitive in
the recent past. The transient simulation approach may be
used to simulate structural responses to random excitations,
which can be considered a "virtual" random vibration test.
The transient approach to random analysis has significant
advantages over the traditional random analysis method or
actual random vibration testing. These advantages include
insight into the physical response of the structure in the time
domain, calculation of time consistent deformed geometry
and stress contour plots, and calculation of combined
stresses such as von Mises stresses.
REFERENCES
[1] Bendat, J.S.; Piersol, A.G., Random DATA: Analysis
and Measurement Procedures, John Wiley and Sons,
Inc., New York, 1971, 407 pp.
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