Abstract
Four time domain inverse methods for load identification of mechanical systems are surveyed. The study focuses on situations where the load locations are known a priori and the corresponding magnitude is unknown. The main emphasis is laid on the accuracy with which the excitation is reconstructed versus the computational complexity. A numerical example is given to elucidate advantages and deficiencies of the four methods. Three of the methods produce excellent force estimations for the model problem, even for measurement data contaminated by noise. Suggestions for applying the studied methods are also given.
