3 Orthogonality and Modes

Regardless of the type of vibration being considered, the matrix form the equation of
motion may be expressed in the form:

Mÿ + Ky = 0
Recapping, assuming simple harmonic motion, y = Yejωt , this may be written as

KY = ω 2 MY
which is the eigenvalue/vector problem defining the natural frequencies and mode shapes.
For the lth natural frequency/mode shapes pair we can write:

KY l = ωl2 MY l

Pre-multiplying by the transpose of the mth eigenvector solution gives:

YTm KY l = ωl2 YTm MY l (1)

Alternatively we write the equation for the mth solution and pre-multiplying by the
transpose of the lth eigenvector solution to give:
2
YTl KY m = ωm YTl MY m

Using AB = (BT AT )T and noting that K and M are symmetric and that CT = DT is
the same as C = D, this may be rewritten as
2
YTm KYl = ωm YTm MYl (2)

Assuming that the natural frequencies are distinct, subtracting (1) from (2) gives

Y Tm MYl = 0 where l != m

Mode shapes are orthogonal with respect to the mass matrix. Substituting back into
(2) gives

YTm KY l = 0 where l != m

Mode shapes are also orthogonal with respect to the stiffness matrix.
For the case where l = m, equation 2 may be rewritten as
kl
YTl KYl = ωl2 Y Tl MYl ! ωl2 =
ml
where the scalars kl and ml are given by kl = Y Tl KY l and ml = YTl MY l .
Defining the modal matrix, Φ, as a collection of all the mode shape column vectors
Yi:
 
... ...
 
Φ=
 Y1 . . . Yi . . . 

... ...

20