I'm studying vibrations in a gearhead, for which I have a general dynamic model of 12 degrees of freedom (only translational coordinates) and I have calculated its natural frequencies.
Now I want to try and correlate my model with a physical system. I did some impact testing with a hammer and measured the response with one accelerometer placed on the horizontal direction of the gearheads case.
My theory on mechanical vibrations and modal testing is quite basic and I don't know how to proceed and interpret the results of the readings.
I tried simulating the forced response in order to correlate the model I'm using to the measurements. For example, in one of the experiments, I hit the gearhead horizontally and measured the response on the opposite side of the gearhead with the accelerometer, in the same axis. In the forced response simulation, I applied a unit force on what would be that equivalent degree of freedom.
In the magnitude response of the test, I have a few peaks ranging from 2khz to 24khz (its also the width of my window res). But in my force response simulation I get resonance peaks much higher, from 9khz up to 80khz. The natural frequencies range from 1khz to 16khz. I have a few questions regarding what I'm trying to do:
Should the natural frequencies I calculated all show in the forced response simulation within a frequency range of up to 20khz, or only those close to the degree of freedom of the applied force in the force vector? In my results so far, none of the peaks in the forced response are close to one of the natural frequencies.
How can I correlate the test measurements with the forced response simulation? none of the peaks in the magnitude response of the tests seem to be close to the simulation.
From the modal test results, I measured some of the peaks and about 3 of them are very close to some of the natural frequencies, does this mean that this frequency were excited in this specific test? or can it be just coincidence? as I explained before, in the forced response simulation I couldn't find any relation.
I should also note that my model is undamped, and my equipment was quite limited (only one sensor and small hammer(22khz)).
I read some theory on varius text books on vibrations and modal testing, they all show how to interpret a general FRF of course, but I can't find practical examples relating a theoretical model and modal testing like I'm doing, not explained in detail at least, most just skip to results, so the general methodology is what I'm lacking.
Thanks.