Random Vibration in Spacecraft Structures Design is based on the lecture notes "Spacecraft structures" and "Special topics concerning vibration in spacecraft structures" from courses given at Delft University of Technology. The monograph, which deals with low and high frequency mechanical, acoustic random vibrations is of interest to graduate students and engineers working in aerospace engineering, particularly in spacecraft and launch vehicle structures design.

Random Vibration in Spacecraft Structures Design is based on the lecture notes "Spacecraft structures" and "Special topics concerning vibration in spacecraft structures" from courses given at Delft University of Technology. The monograph, which deals with low and high frequency mechanical, acoustic random vibrations is of interest to graduate students and engineers working in aerospace engineering, particularly in spacecraft and launch vehicle structures design.

This document provides a general survey of the field of space-vehicle structural vibration induced by acoustic and aerodynamic noise and certain mechanical excitation.

This book discusses the theory, applicability and numerous examples of Miles’ equation in detail. Random vibration is one of the main design drivers in the context of the design, development and verification of spacecraft structures, instruments, equipment, etc, and Miles’ equation provides a valuable tool for solving random vibration problems. It allows mechanical engineers to make rapid preliminary random response predictions when the (complex) structure is exposed to mechanical and acoustical loads. The book includes appendices to support the theory and applications in the main chapters.

The US space industry has accumulated a vast amount of expertise in the testing of spacecraft to ensure these vehicles can endure the harsh environments associated with launch and on-orbit operations. Even with this corporate experience, there remains a wide variation in the techniques utilized to test spacecraft during the development and manufacturing process, particularly with regard to spacecraft level dynamics testing. This study investigates the effectiveness of sinusoidal vibration, random vibration, acoustic noise and transient methods of spacecraft dynamic testing. An analysis of test failure and on-orbit performance data for acceptance testing indicates that the acoustic test is the most perceptive workmanship screen at the vehicle level and that additional dynamics tests do not result in an increase in acceptance test effectiveness. For spacecraft qualification, acoustic testing is almost universally employed for qualification in the high frequency environment. For the low frequency environment, data collected from a variety of spacecraft test programs employing sinusoidal sweep, random vibration and transient testing methods shows that a transient base excitation provides the most accurate simulation for the purpose of design verification. Furthermore, data shows that sinusoidal vibration testing provides an unrealistic simulation of the flight environment and results in an increased potential for overtesting.