Advanced numerical techniques for predicting frequency response functions

Abstract

Numerical methods have been widely used to predict Frequency Response Functions (FRF) of structures. The FRF can be used to characterize structural dynamics and support sound and vibration control. Generally, frequency sweep is conducted in the FRF calculations to identify damping and resonant frequencies of structures under excitations. However, as numerical models are getting complex and larger, the demands for computational resources (e.g., CPU time, memory, disk space) are greatly increased. Lately, high performance computing (HPC) at the DoD HPC center has been used with advanced numerical techniques to reduce the overall computational time. Those advanced numerical techniques include Krylov subspace and Galerkin Projection (KGP) and Pade Approximation. Significantly CPU time reduction has been demonstrated for relatively smaller FE models. This paper will further discuss adaptive KGP by automating the frequency sweep process via calculated relative residues, then combine with Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting (FETI) to solve for FRF of a large FEM model in the order of 60M DOF. A flat plate with viscoelastic layer will serve as an example to demonstrate accuracy and efficiency of AKGP with FETI. The benefits of using HPC with advanced numerical techniques to solve for large FEM models are clearly displayed.