Experimental determination of the impulse response function for elastic vibrating systems

An experimental method for determination and analysis of the impulse response function of linear, elastic, vibrating systems is developed. A deconvolution method is developed for estimation of the impulse response function. The estimator is shown to be unbiased in the presence of measurement noise. Modal parameters are extracted from impulse response estimates using a modification of the Pisarenko harmonic decomposition method. The advantages of a time-domain approach over traditional Fourier analysis procedures, including avoidance of leakage and enhanced statistical significance, are described. Several tests used to determine the performance of the impulse response estimator are described, and the results of these tests, are presented. It is shown that the method can provide accurate estimates of modal parameters even for short data sets or high noise levels.