Design of a Low Cost Electrodynamic Shaker

Abstract

Electrodynamic shakers are fundamental instruments for testing mechanical vibrations. Their numerous applications make them highly interesting equipment in the field of mechanical, aeronautical, and aerospace engineering. Although there has been commercial equipment for years, these are of high economic value.
The objective of this work is to design a low-cost electro-dynamic exciter, capable of inducing forced vibrations in structures for laboratory tests.
From the fundamental laws of electromagnetism, dimensioning equations were deduced, a qualitative analysis of these equations was carried out to obtain design considerations and they were used to define the construction parameters. Component materials were selected, three-dimensional modeling was performed using CAD software, and verified using finite element analysis.
The design of a low-power, low-cost electrodynamic exciter prototype is presented. The equipment has a maximum force of 85 N, the maximum displacement of 5 mm, and can operate in a frequency range between 7 Hz and 2.1 kHz.