Intro to Modal Analysis

Modal Analysis – Lesson 1

Intro to Modal Analysis
• Modal analysis is used to determine the vibration characteristics of linear elastic structures.

• Modal analysis is also the typical common dynamic simulation for many other dynamic simulations

Harmonic

Transient
Dynamic Modal Random
Vibration

Response
Spectrum

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Intro to Modal Analysis (cont.)
• Modal analysis looks for natural frequencies and normal modes of a structure.

• Natural frequencies and modes are some of the most important properties of a structure; they
determine how the structure will respond.

What’s the nature of a guitar string?

What’s the nature of a skyscraper as a slim tall structure?

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Intro to Modal Analysis (cont.)
Why do we care about natural frequencies? To avoid resonance.
• Think about the vibration you hear or see in your car when driving over a rough road
• In this example, a compressor is running and the natural frequency of the piping is matching the vibration of the
machinery causing the piping to resonate.
• This causes unwanted noise and mechanical stress and strain, resulting in premature fatigue failure.
• By knowing the natural frequency of the components, we can design them to avoid specific ranges to prevent
resonance.

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Intro to Modal Analysis (cont.)
Why do we care about the natural frequencies? To understand more complex dynamic behavior.

• Here we see the wing dynamically deforming due to the random turbulence excitation.
• What deformation shapes can be seen?
• Does one shape dominate?
• Let’s take a look at what simulation of the wing can reveal.

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Intro to Modal Analysis (cont.)
• Looking at natural frequencies from the Ansys simulation of a typical wing, we see some of the
typical modes, shown below.
• The dynamic response of the blade from an excitation (such as turbulence) will be a combination of
the normal modes.
• The modal results can help to answer important questions for engineers:
• Are the first several modes expected with the applied boundary conditions? Think of the wing as a
cantilever beam.
• What kind of deformation patterns are they representing? Bending, torsion?
• Which mode of the wing tip is the main deformation? Is it expected?