DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS EVALUATION OF ELASTICALLY JOINTED STRUCTURES THROUGH STOCHASTIC SIMULATION

This paper presents a stochastic simulation method which is used to evaluate dynamic characteristics of elastically jointed structures. Due to the joint friction and clearances involved in the analytical model of elastic joints, the conventional numerical simulation can only provide the system performance in certain specific conditions. The effects of dynamic disturbances and other random factors are hardly included. In this research, the vibration process of the jointed structure is simulated through a vibration data generation process, which is based on a newly-developed, theoretical joint model and the stochastic process theory. The vibration pattern and joint contact force can be analyzed from the vibration data. These data are also used to estimate the parameters of a stochastic model so that the system eigenvalues can be evaluated. The stochastic simulation method has been applied to a truss-cell unit structure. The results of the simulation study are shown in this paper. They are compared with experiment results and show a satisfactory comparison.