10.  Conclusion

Experimental modal analysis calls on experimental materials and methods that have now acquired a certain maturity. However, like all experimental techniques, it is not an exact science. The credibility of results depends heavily on the care taken at every stage of the process: structure conditioning, instrumentation, measurement parameterization, data processing and analysis. Any experimenter knows that a single weak point can compromise the whole process. The use of numerical models before and during testing is to be encouraged, as it provides a finer-grained view of the analysis of experimental data and can help to detect anomalies where it is still possible to intervene.

Every experimenter also knows that an experimental modal base is the reflection of a given structure at a given moment under given conditions. This unique result is tainted by experimental uncertainties,...