Improved eigenvalues for combined dynamical systems using a modified finite element discretization scheme

New approaches are presented to discretize an arbitrarily supported linear structure carrying various lumped attachments. Specifically, the exact eigendata, i.e., the exact natural frequencies and mode shapes, of the linear structure without the lumped attachments are first used to modify its finite element mass and stiffness matrix so that the eigensolutions of the discretized system coincide with the exact modes of vibration. This is achieved by identifying a set of minimum changes in the finite element system matrices and enforcing certain constraint conditions. Once the updated matrices for the linear structure are found, the finite element assembling technique is then used to include the lumped attachments by adding their parameters to the appropriate elements in the modified mass and stiffness matrices. Numerical experiments show that for the same number of elements, the proposed scheme returns higher natural frequencies that are substantially more accurate than those given by the finite element model. Alternatively, the proposed discretization scheme allows one to efficiently and accurately determine the higher natural frequencies of a combined system without increasing the number of elements in the finite element model.