Modal analysis of a thin plate: A demonstration package for undergraduate students

This paper reports on a demonstration package that gives students a clear understanding of the vibration and modal analysis technique, which forms a crucial theme in dynamics and vibration analysis and condition monitoring. A rig has been prepared to display the experimental results and give the students hand-on experience. A finite-element (FE) analysis is used to calculate the theoretical results for comparison with those obtained through experiment. The students are then in a position to vary the parameters of the FE analysis model and note the changes in the shift of the natural frequencies.