Characterizing Electrodynamic Shakers as a Two-Port Network

An electrodynamic shaker is modeled as a mixed electrical/mechanical system with an experimentally derived two-port network characterization. The model characterizes the shaker in a manner that the performance of the shaker with a mounted load (test item and fixture) can be predicted. The characterization depends on the measurements of shaker input voltage and current, and on the acceleration of the shaker armature with several mounted loads. The force into the load is also required and can be measured directly or inferred from the load apparent mass.