Demarcation for the Coupling Strength in the MODENA Approach

Abstract

MODal ENergy Analysis (MODENA) is an energy-based approach which is proposed recently to provide a pure tone analysis of power flow. The net exchanged power between two coupled oscillators is proportional to the weighted difference of total energies of oscillators. Contrary to Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) or Statistical modal Energy distribution Analysis (SmEdA), the MODENA approach can deal with strong coupling case where the power can flow from the oscillator with lower energy to the one with higher energy. The level of coupling strength between oscillators may affect the accuracy of the MODENA approach. This research work aims to propose a criterion to determine the level of coupling in the MODENA approach. A non-dimensional parameter named coupling strength factor is defined to clearly demonstrate the level of coupling strength. Two numerical examples: (a) a two-oscillators coupling case and (b) a multi-modal coupling case are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed criterion.