Random Vibration of Space Shuttle Weather Protection Systems

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Elishakoff, Isaac | Baruch, Menahem | Zhu, Liping | Caimi, Raoul

Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991 | Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991 | NASA Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, FL 32899

Abstract: The article deals with random vibrations of the space shuttle weather protection systems. The excitation model represents a fit to the measured experimental data. The cross-spectral density is given as a convex combination of three exponential functions. It is shown that for the type of loading considered, the Bernoulli-Euler theory cannot be used as a simplified approach, and the structure will be more properly modeled as a Timoshenko beam. Use of the simple Bernoulli-Euler theory may result in an error of about 50% in determining the mean-square value of the bending moment in the weather protection system.

DOI: 10.3233/SAV-1995-2202

Journal: Shock and Vibration, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 111-118, 1995