Modal testing variability of spherical marine floats.
- Amy N.
- François M.
- Isaac F.
- Thomas A.
This study investigates the variability in modal data obtained from testing a set of hollow, almost spherical marine floats. Four sources of variability are investigated: unit-to -unit variability, operator-to-operator variability, test repetition, and accelerometer placement. Because moving the accelerometers implies a test setup reconfiguration, it is expected that variability due to accelerometer placement should encompass variability due to test repetition. Similarly, the unit-to-unit variability should encompass both accelerometer placement variability and test-to -test variability. Impulse and frequency response functions are estimated from the measured excitation and response of the marine floats. A series of techniques are then used to assess the variation of the modal properties between each test, including: a measure of the spread of the frequency response functions in each test group; the variation of the temporal moments, spectral moments, and principal components; and the variability of resonant frequencies and modal damping ratios extracted from the data. The effects of mass and geometry on variability are also investigated. A strong correlation between the frequency and mass is found for the fundamental mode only. The main conclusion is that the majority of analysis techniques find the unit-to-unit variability to be the largest by a significant margin. The second largest is the variability caused by accelerometer placement. Next are the operator-to-operator variability and test-to -test variability.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE
- OSTI ID:
- 977904
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-04-7334
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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