ASA 130th Meeting - St. Louis, MO - 1995 Nov 27 .. Dec 01

4aSA5. Analysis of a model structural fuzzy with long-range spatial interactions.

Melvin E. King

Dept. of Aerospace and Mech. Eng., Boston Univ., 110 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215

Considerable progress has recently been made in analyzing the vibrational response of systems that enclose complex internal structures by introducing the notion of structural fuzzies. For globally distributed fuzzies that locally interact with a master structure (i.e., systems without length scales), a primary descriptor for the structural fuzzy has been identified as the density of mass per unit temporal frequency, dM/d(omega). Many practical structures, however, possess internals which are not local in nature, and therefore couple with the response of a master structure over various length scales. In an effort to address such problems, a prototypical model has been selected which simulates a network of pipes, ducts, and/or conduits attached to a master structure. The model consists of a flat plate (taken to be the master structure) onto which is attached a network of pipes (taken to be the spatially interacting structural fuzzy). Each pipe is attached to the plate via periodically spaced supports (assumed to be rigid and massless), and only coupled transverse motions are considered. Using this model system, basic insights into frequency wave-number interactions due to the structural fuzzy are sought and important physical parameters are identified.