A Method for Identifying Parameters of Mechanical Joints

Abstract

A method for identifying the physical parameters of joints in mechanical systems is presented. In the method, a multi-d.o.f. (degree-of-freedom) system is transformed into several single d.o.f. systems using selected eigenvectors. With the result from modal testing, each single d.o.f. system is used to solve for a pair of unknown physical parameters. For complicated cases where the exact eigenvector cannot be obtained, it will be proven that a particular physical parameter has a stationary value in the neighborhood of an eigenvector. Therefore, a good approximation for a joint physical parameter can be obtained by using an approximate eigenvector and the exact value for the joint parameters can be reached by carrying out this process in an iterative way.