Inertial Shakers
When Large Structures Need to Be Tested, Inertial Shakers Provide the Ideal Solution
These shakers have found applications for testing buildings, floor loading resonances, ship’s decks for helicopter loading, squeaks and rattle testing in cars, geological exploration, helicopter rotor simulation and active vibration cancellation. The central spigot is attached to the structure under test and the body then provides the inertial mass.
Inertial shakers are permanent magnet devices which may be sealed for short test operations in harsh environments. For prolonged use it is necessary to cool the shakers and this can be achieved either by the attachment of a standard shop dry air line or by the attachment of a small cooling blower to suck the air through the shaker.
All power amplifiers used with inertial shakers may be fitted with an internal sine signal source to provide simple excitation for the shaker. Externally generated signals may also be applied to the power amplifier.
Shaker / Amplifier Performance Characteristics
Standard features
- Force outputs from 30 N to 250 N
- Tunable suspension to produce peak force at low resonant frequencies
- Cooling by air-line or by standard blowers
Typical applications
- Structural (modal) testing of naval ship and submarine bulkheads
- Testing of industrial plant pipework
- Testing of heavy machine bedplates
- Testing of building walls and floors
- Active vibration cancellation (with a customer supplied control system)
