Cost Optimized Non-Contacting Experimental Modal Analysis Using a Smartphone

The vibrations behavior analysis is an essential step in the mechanical design process. Several methods such as analytical modelling, numerical analysis and experimental measurements can be used for this purpose. However, the numerical or analytical models should be validated through experimental measurements, usually expensive. This paper introduces an inexpensive smartphone as an accurate, non-intrusive vibrations’ behavior measurement device. An experimental measurement procedure based on the video processing method is presented. This procedure allows the measurement of the natural frequencies and the mode shapes of a vibrating structure, simply by using a smartphone built-in camera. The experimental results are compared to those obtained using an accurate analytical model, where the natural frequencies error is less than 2.7% and the modal assurance criterion is higher than 0.89. In order to highlight the obtained results, a comparison has been done using a high quality and high frame per second (fps) camera-based measurement of material properties. Since the highest recovered natural frequency and its associated mode shape depend on the frame per second rate of the recorded video, this procedure has great potential in low frequencies problems such as for big structures like buildings and bridges. This validated technique re-introduces the personal smartphone as an accurate inexpensive non-contacting vibration measurement tool.