Statistical Energy Analysis of Primary‐Secondary Structural Systems

Abstract

Statistical energy analysis (SEA) techniques, which are very useful in the dynamic analysis of complex systems, are applied to the study of dynamics of primary‐secondary structural systems. The dynamic response of a system consisting of two spring‐coupled oscillators subject to the filtered white‐noise excitation is examined by means of energy and power flow relations. It is shown that the SEA is conceptually simple and the results obtained from this procedure give useful physical insight into secondary‐system dynamics due to the coupling effect. For example, the mean kinetic energy of the secondary system (indirectly excited oscillator) will always be overestimated if the interaction between the two oscillators is ignored. An evaluation of the coupling effect and response behavior of two coupled multimodal subsystems follows. As numerical examples, two beam‐plate systems, one with point coupling and the other with line coupling, are analyzed. Results of the parametric studies are presented.