Extension of the statistical modal energy distribution analysis for estimating energy density in coupled subsystems

The present article deals with an extension of the Statistical modal Energy distribution Analysis (SmEdA) method to estimate kinetic and potential energy density in coupled subsystems. The SmEdA method uses the modal bases of uncoupled subsystems and focuses on the modal energies rather than the global energies of subsystems such as SEA (Statistical Energy Analysis). This method permits extending SEA to subsystems with low modal overlap or to localized excitations as it does not assume the existence of modal energy equipartition. We demonstrate that by using the modal energies of subsystems computed by SmEdA, it is possible to estimate energy distribution in subsystems. This approach has the same advantages of standard SEA, as it uses very short calculations to analyze damping effects. The estimation of energy distribution from SmEdA is applied to an academic case and an industrial example.