A condensation procedure for the coupled analysis of multidegree-of-fr
eedom primary-secondary (PS) structural systems is developed based on
energy principles. It provides a simple and consistent approach to the
response analysis of secondary systems in a vibrational environment f
or both tuned and detuned cases without explicit knowledge of the freq
uency characteristics associated with the combined PS system. In this
method, a multidegree-of-freedom (larger than three degrees) P-system
is always substituted by a three-degree-of-freedom system before conde
nsing a 1S-3P model to a 1S-2P model based on the equivalence of the S
-system energy. All the energy parameters in the 1S-2P and 1S-3P model
s are analytically calculated from closed-form expressions so that an
increase in the number of degrees of freedom does not substantially in
crease the computational effort. Some of the solution properties such
as its convergence as the mass ratio approaches a small value and the
accuracy and efficiency of the solution procedure are discussed in som
e detail. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate these pr
operties.