Background

The Dynamics and Testing Working Group (DTWG) has been borne out of the Dynamics Testing Agency (DTA).  The original DTA was set up in the late 1980s through a collaboration between industry and the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry to disseminate best practice to the structural dynamic community.  Its output was primarily biased towards the testing community not only to provide fundamental advice on how to implement effective testing, but also to inform users on the analysis and interpretation of results.  One of the objectives of the original group was to bring together test and analysis to exploit the complementary aspects of each approach.  Thus, Finite Element Model (FEM) reconciliation was one of the key activities of the DTA.

From this background a natural progression for the DTA was to form an alliance with NAFEMS.  The common goal of the emergent DTWG is to reinforce the links with the FE community and to bring a new constituency to NAFEMS.  One of the beneficial outcomes of the group will be to promote a better understanding of structural dynamics through the most efficient use of testing and simulation techniques.  As with all NAFEMS working groups, the primary objective of the new group is to draft and disseminate best practice documents.  Although the background of the current members of the group is in the field of Structural Dynamics and Vibration, the initial work will have a broader remit to bring the activities of testing and analysis closer together.