Abstract
Structural vibration is a significant problem in many multi-part or multi-component assemblies. In aircraft industry, structures are composed of various fasteners, such as bolts, snap, hinge, weld or other fastener or connector (collectively "fasteners"). Due to these, prediction and design involving dynamic characteristics is quite complicated. However, the current state of the art does not provide an analytical tool to effectively predict structure's dynamic characteristics, because consideration of structural uncertainties (i.e. material properties, geometric tolerance, dimensional tolerance, environment and so on) is difficult and very small fasteners in the structure cause a huge amount of analysis time to predict dynamic characteristics using the FEM (finite element method). In this study, to resolve the current state of the art, a new approach is proposed using the FEM and probabilistic analysis. Firstly, equivalent elements are developed using simple element (e.g. bar, beam, mass) to replace fasteners' finite element model. Developed equivalent elements enable to explain static behavior and dynamic behavior of the structure. Secondly, probabilistic analysis is applied to evaluate the PDF (probability density function) of dynamic characteristics due to tolerance, material properties and so on. MCS (Monte-Carlo simulation) is employed for this. Proposed methodology offers efficiency of dynamic analysis and reality of the field as well. Simple plates joined by fasteners are taken as an example to illustrate the proposed method.
