The History of a Decision: A Standard Vibration Test Method for Qualification
As MIL-STD-810G, Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests, and subsequent versions have incorporated multiple-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) vibration test methodologies, it is important to understand the history and factors that drove the original decision in MIL-STD-810 to focus on single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) vibration testing. Examining the thought process behind early MIL-STD-810 vibration test methods is useful when considering MDOF testing now that it is feasible with today's technology and documented in MIL-STD-810. This paper delves into the details of the decision made in the 1960s to develop the SDOF vibration testing standards in MIL-STD-810 beyond the limitations of technology at the time. This paper also considers the implications for effective test planning today considering the advances in test capabilities and improvements in understanding of the operational environment.Abstract
Contributor Notes
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Davinia Rizzo is a principal systems engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. She has been a systems engineer for more than 20 years, working primarily in the defense industry for companies such as Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter, and Raytheon. Davinia holds a BS in mathematics, an MBA in engineering management, and an MS in systems engineering. She is currently pursuing her PhD in systems engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. Her research topic is a Predictive Analysis Framework for Six Degrees of Freedom Vibration Qualification.
Mark Blackburn, PhD, is an associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. He is an inventor and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of software systems engineering experience in development, management, and applied research of process, methods, and tools. He is involved in consulting, research, training, strategic planning, and proposal and business development, as well as developing and applying methods and tools to software and system engineering. He is the co-inventor of a theorem proving-based test vector generation system called T-VEC.
Journal cover photo. (L. to r. Davinia Rizzo, David Smallwood, Kevin Cross, and Norman Hunter) The TEAM Corporation Tensor 18kN 6-DOF shaker is an example of technologies changing the landscape of how vibration tests are performed, especially tests focused exercising high frequency content in multiple degrees of freedom. The shaker is an integral part of vibration and vibroacoustic research at Sandia National Laboratories. These technologies are changing the approach to vibration tests where the focus has been largely on SDOF tests for decades.
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