Structural Synthesis for Prescribed Target Natural Frequencies and Mode Shapes

A new method for the synthesis of structures with prescribed target natural frequencies and mode shapes is presented. The introduction of a modal Rayleigh quotient approximation based on the target mode shapes is the means to propose a structural synthesis problem whose solution is free from eigenvector sensitivity analysis. The frequencies and mode shapes can be adjusted as close as possible to the desired target values, while minimizing the total mass. Several examples corroborate the efficacy of the proposed method.