Reconstruction of 3-D structural dynamic response fields: an experimental, laser-based approach with statistical emphasis

This dissertation is concerned with the evaluation of a new statistically sound reconstruction methodology for continuous 3-D dynamic response fields of harmonically excited structures in steady-state vibration. This results in an experimental process which reconstructs the response field from a set of 3-D projections based on Laser-Doppler-Vibrometer (LDV) localized instantaneous velocity measurements. Included along with an estimate of the 3-D velocity field, are its statistical characteristics and the inferential tools required to test the quality of the estimation. This dissertation documents in detail the development and evaluation of the proposed reconstruction methodology and its relevant subprocesses which inc1ude the formulation of a deterministic laser-structure kinematic model, and regression models that afford statistical inference for the time-domain and spatial-domain structural dynamics, as well as for the projection recombination process.