Structural Robustness Study of a Computer Motherboard

In this paper, two modal analysis methods are addressed to research the structural robustness of a computer motherboard. One is experimental modal analysis, and the other is computational modal analysis. Experimental modal analysis is carried out by single input multiple output method and the modal parameters of computer motherboard are extracted by multiple reference point modal parameter extraction method in frequency domain. Computational modal analysis is fulfilled by finite element method (FEM). In order to reduce the FE model scale, the locally stiffened regions, such as CPU, PCI sockets, ISA sockets, chipset, memory sockets, were simplified as blocks. The material properties parameters of these regions are measured by electric-test experiments on samples removed from the motherboard. According to finite element (FE) modeling theory, the FE model of the motherboard is constructed, as well as computational modal analysis is performed. By comparison, the result from experimental modal analysis agrees well with those from computational modal analysis. Finally, the underlying resonance regions under different natural frequency are discussed, which will provide some references to optimize and design the structure of the motherboard, as well as to redistribute the components assembled on the motherboard reasonably.