RAYLEIGHS INFLUENCE ON ENGINEERING VIBRATION THEORY

The first ten chapters of ''The Theory of Sound'' constitute an unprec edented exposition of vibration theory. This tour-de-force set the mol d for the teaching of vibration for more than a century. The central c ore is linear modal analysis applied to lumped parameter systems and t o strings, bars, beams, membranes, plates, and shells. In addition the re are preliminary investigations of nonlinear vibrations, parametrica lly excited. vibrations, and random vibrations. Most of the textbooks on vibrations for engineers that have appeared in the past 50 years ma y be viewed as attempts to explain Rayleigh's ideas to university stud ents. Rayleigh's paradigm has served us well for a century but it appe ars that we are now on the threshold of major changes in the way vibra tion theory is taught. These changes are being driven by the tremendou s advances in instrumentation and data processing facilities. Although Rayleigh introduced the concept of the transfer function in vibration he did not develop-it to any extent. He chose instead the concept of modal decomposition as his primary analysis tool. It is suggested that future introductory vibration texts may well reverse the relative imp ortance attached to these concepts. (C) 1995 Acoustical Society of Ame rica.