Analysis of dominating dynamic characteristics of structures

The work presented in this thesis is motivated by a need for an advanced understanding of the governing mechanisms for vibrations in complex structures. In order to obtain a simplified description of the complex structure with the dominant information of the structure enhanced, one removes some unimportant structural information from the description by identifying secondary contributing substructures and couplings, then describing them using simplified models. It is found that the secondary substructures are those substructures being required for their vibrational transmission characteristics only, and the secondary couplings are the weak couplings in the structure. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the transmission characteristics can be sufficiently described by using only the direct wave and the fIrst reflection in the structure, and the secondary coupling can be simplified as an idealised coupling. The procedure for establishing such a simplifIed description for the complex structure is illustrated by a two-element built-up structure. Finally, the efficiency of using such a simplifIed description to analyse the complex structure is demonstrated for two mechanical artefacts, one being a laboratory structure consisting of a cylindrical shell attached to a plate via two beams, and the other a full-scale aircraft - EurofIghter 2000.