Atraveling waveexcitation system is described that wasdeveloped fortheU.S. AirForceResearch Laboratory’ s Turbine Engine Fatigue Facility. The traveling wave system was designed to simulate engine order excitation in stationary bladed disks for the purpose of identifying forced response localization and amplie cation due to mistuning.Thesystemcantestbladed disksofvarying sizesand numberofbladesusing eitheracousticormagnetic excitation. A phase-shifting circuit reduces signal generation costs over purchasing separate function generators and allows amplitude and phase calibration of the exciters. Sources of errors in the traveling wave excitation are discussed and estimated. A e nite element analysis shows that the forced response of a bladed disk is more sensitive to structural mistuning than to traveling wave excitation errors. The traveling wave excitation system is demonstrated on an 18-bladed disk, and experimental forced response results are presented. Nomenclature A = force amplitude a = speed of sound C = engine order e = distance error F = force vector Fav = average exciter force magnitude spectrum f = excitation frequency, Hz h = frequency response i = blade number L = wavelength of sound N = number of blades t = time x = forced response 1A = amplitude error 1µ = phase error µ = interblade phase angle µe = phase error ! = excitation frequency