Στην παρούσα διατριβή παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα μιας εκτεταμένης διερεύνησης της ανελαστικής συμπεριφοράς επίπεδων μεταλλικών καμπτικών πλαισίων. Η διερεύνηση περιλαμβάνει 36 συνολικά πλαίσια με διαφορετικές ιδιότητες, όπως αριθμός ανοιγμάτων και ορόφων τα οποία τα οποία αναλύονται με βηματικές δυναμικές ανελαστικές αναλύσεις για 20 σεισμικές κινήσεις προκειμένου να καθοριστεί η απόκριση τους (μετακινήσεις και τέμνουσα βάσης) στα συγκεκριμένα ανελαστικά επίπεδα βλάβης, που καθορίζουν οι αντισεισμικοί κανονισμοί παγκοσμίως. Έπειτα υπολογίζεται ο κατάλληλος συντελεστής ιξώδους απόσβεσης ίδιος για όλες τις πρώτες ιδιομορφές ώστε με χρήση ελαστικής φασματικής ανάλυσης των πλαισίων να δίνει τα ίδια αποτελέσματα σε επίπεδο δυνάμεων με αυτά της ανελαστικής. Αυτό απαιτεί την κατασκευή φασμάτων σχεδιασμού με υψηλές τιμές ιξώδους απόσβεση. Τέλος παρουσιάζονται εμπειρικοί τύποι υπολογισμού αυτού του συντελεστή απόσβεσης για κάθε κτήριο και κάθε επίπεδο επιτελεστικότητας προς διευκόλυνση του μηχανικού. / This thesis presents the results of an extensive investigation of the nonlinear behavior of steel bending frames. The investigation includes a number of 36 frames with different properties, such as number of openings and floors which are analyzed by step by step dynamic inelastic analysis for 20 seismic movements in order to determine their response (movement and base shear) in particular inelastic damage levels, which determine the Seismic Codes. Furthermore, the appropriate damping rate, which is the same for all the first modes, was calculated using spectral analysis of elastic frames with the purpose of giving the same results at the level of forces are inelastic . This requires the construction of design spectra with high damping. Finally it is presented empirical formulas of calculating the daming ratio for each building and each performance level to facilitate engineers.

This thesis presents further experimentation and modeling for bump-type gas foil bearings used in oil-free turbomachinery. The effect of shaft temperature on the measured structural force response of foil bearings is of importance for reliable high temperature applications. During actual operation with shaft rotation, the bearing structural parameters are coupled to the effects of a hydrodynamic gas film layer, thus determining the overall bearing load performance. A 38.17 mm inner diameter foil bearing, Generation II, is mounted on an affixed non-rotating hollow shaft with an outer diameter of 38.125 mm. A cartridge heater inserted into the shaft provides a controllable heat source. The clearance between the shaft and the foil bearing increases with increasing shaft temperatures (up to 188°C). A static load (ranging from 0 N to 133 N) is applied to the bearing housing, while measuring the resulting bearing displacement, which represents the compliant structure deflection. Static load versus displacement tests render the bearing static structural stiffness. As the shaft temperature increases, the static test results indicate that the bearing structural stiffness decreases by as much as 70% depending on the bearing orientation. A dynamic load test setup includes a rigid shaft support structure and a suspended electromagnetic shaker. Dynamic load (from 13 N to 31 N) test results show that the test foil bearing stiffness increases by as much as 50% with amplitude of dynamic load above a lightly loaded region, nearly doubles with frequency up to 200 Hz, and decreases by a third as shaft temperature increases. A stick slip phenomenon increases the bearing stiffness at higher frequencies for all the amplitudes of dynamic load tested. The test derived equivalent viscous damping is inversely proportional to amplitude of dynamic load, excitation frequency, and shaft temperature. Further, the estimated bearing dry friction coefficient decreases from 0.52 to 0.36 with amplitude of dynamic load and stays nearly constant as shaft temperature increases. Test results identify static and dynamic bearing parameters for increasing shaft temperature. These experimental results provide a benchmark for predictions from analytical models in current development and are essential to establish sound design practices of the compliant bearing structure.

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of semi-active control systems for structural protection during severe earthquake loading. However, the research reported herein also involves analytical studies on the effect of adding viscous damping to the second and fourth quadrants of the force-displacement curve, and laboratory and field testing of a fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) for measuring rotations in civil engineering structures. The concept of the 2-4 viscous damping is introduced to reduce the response of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems subjected to harmonic and earthquake excitations. This concept involves the addition of structural viscous damping to the second and fourth quadrants of the force-displacement graph. Time-history analyses and response spectra for various SDOF systems are carried out to assess the effect of adding 2-4 viscous damping. The analytical results indicate that the addition of 2-4 viscous damping is beneficial for reducing the harmonic and seismic response of a wide range of SDOF systems. A newly developed semi-active resettable device is proposed to reduce the seismic response of a one-fifth scale structure. The device is investigated as part of a resettable tendon system installed in the structure. Nonlinear dynamic analyses are performed to determine the optimal configuration of the resettable tendon in the structure. Several shake table tests are performed on the structure equipped with two resettable devices. The dynamic characteristics of the structure and the devices are described. Various earthquake records at different levels of intensity are used during the seismic testing. Different control laws are employed to manipulate the hysteretic behaviour of the devices. The results of the shake table tests validate the effectiveness of the resettable devices to reduce the seismic response of structures. Analytical studies are performed to determine the optimal utilization of the resettable devices in a twelve-storey reinforced concrete building. The seismic performance of the structure is discussed in relation to the number and distribution of the devices. Inelastic time-history analyses are carried out to assess the effectiveness of the devices to reduce the seismic response of the building. The impact of various tendon arrangements and different control laws on the earthquake response is investigated. Relevant issues for the implementation of the resettable devices in actual building systems are identified. Finally, a new measurement concept based on the use of the fibre-optic gyroscope is proposed to measure rotation rates, rotations, displacements and inter-storey drifts of civil engineering structures. FOGs are compact, easy to install and, unlike conventional linear potentiometers, do not require a fixed reference frame to operate. Measurements recorded during the seismic testing of the one-fifth scale structure and displacement measurements at the Sky Tower in Auckland validate the suitability of the FOGs for applications in civil engineering.

This thesis presents the results of a study that uses Incremental Dynamic Analysis to assess the seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frames with fluid viscous dampers subjected to earthquake ground motions. The study systematically investigated the effects of linear and nonlinear dampers on the response of steel moment-resisting frames to earthquakes that varied in intensity and type. Both near-field and far-field motions were considered. Two different types of nonlinear dampers were investigated; one had a hardening and the other had a softening force-velocity relationship. The nonlinear dampers were calibrated to the linear dampers so that there was a basis of comparison. Maximum damper displacement is one of the parameters of the calibration, and it was varied to investigate its effect on structural response. Several nonlinear inelastic time history analyses were performed to obtain responses, such as peak base shear, peak interstory drift, or residual displacement index, which were plotted versus earthquake intensity to create individual IDA curves. Sets of related IDA curves provide a useful summary of the structural behavior for a wide range of variables. IDA curves for the tests with different damping types are presented. The results show that for both near-field and far-field ground motions the nonlinear dampers with a hardening force-velocity relationship are best suited to reduce undesirable drifts and residual displacements; however, these reductions come at the cost of high base shear forces. / Master of Science

The optical power of satellites such as the Hubble telescope is directly related to the size of the primary mirror. However, due to the limited capacity of the shuttle bay, progress towards the development of more powerful satellites using traditional construction methods has come to a standstill. Therefore, to allow larger satellites to be launched into space significant interest has been shown in the development of ultra large inflatable structures that can be packaged inside the shuttle bay and then deployed once in space. To facilitate the packaging of the inflated device in its launch configuration, most structures utilize a thin film membrane as the optical or antenna surface. Once the inflated structure is deployed in space, it is subject to vibrations induced mechanically by guidance systems and space debris as well as thermally induced vibrations from variable amounts of direct sunlight. For the optimal performance of the satellite, it is crucial that the vibration of the membrane be quickly suppressed. However, due to the extremely flexible nature of the membrane structure, few actuation methods exist that avoid local deformation and surface aberrations. One potential method of applying damping to the membrane structure is to use magnetic damping. Magnetic dampers function through the eddy currents that are generated in a conductive material that experiences a time varying magnetic field. However, following the generation of these currents, the internal resistance of the conductor causes them to dissipate into heat. Because a portion of the moving conductor's kinetic energy is used to generate the eddy currents, which are then dissipated, a damping effect occurs. This damping force can be described as a viscous force due to the dependence on the velocity of the conductor. While eddy currents form an effective method of applying damping, they have normally been used for magnetic braking applications. Furthermore, the dampers that have been designed for vibration suppression have typically been ineffective at suppressing structural vibration, incompatible with practical systems, and cumbersome to the structure resulting in significant mass loading and changes to the dynamic response. To alleviate these issues, three previously unrealized damping mechanisms that function through eddy currents have been developed, modeled and tested. The dampers do not contact the structure, thus, allowing them to add damping to the system without inducing the mass loading and added stiffness that are typically common with other forms of damping. The first damping concept is completely passive and functions solely due to the conductor's motion in a static magnetic field. The second damping system is semi-active and improves the passive damper by allowing the magnet's position to be actively controlled, thus, maximizing the magnet's velocity relative to the beam and enhancing the damping force. The final system is completely active using an electromagnet, through which the current can be actively modified to induce a time changing magnetic flux on the structure and a damping effect. The three innovative damping mechanisms that have resulted from this research apply control forces to the structure without contacting it, which cannot be done by any other passive vibration control system. Furthermore, the non-contact nature of these dampers makes them compatible with the flexible membranes needed to advance the performance of optical satellites. / Ph. D.

This thesis assesses the use of the measured motions of a semisubmersible oil platform as a basis for estimating on-site wave spectra. The inference method followed is based on the wave buoy analogy, which aims at solving the linear inverse problem: estimate the sea state, given the measured motions and the transfer function of the platform. Directional wave inference obtained from the records of vessels motions is a technique that has seen its application grow signicantly over the last years. As a matter of fact, its applications in ships with forward speed and ship-shaped moored platforms (such as FPSOs) have provided good results. However, little research has been done regarding the use of semisubmersible platforms as wave sensors. This is due to the fact that these platforms are designed to present no signicant responses when excited by waves. Notwithstanding this, the semisubmersible platforms are characterized by measurable small motions. Moreover, if compared with ship-shaped motion-based wave sensors, the responses of the semisubmersibles are in better agreement with the response characteristics estimations obtained by means of linear hydrodynamic models. In addition, the eminently linear characteristics of the responses often lasts even for severe wave conditions. This feature results in that the semisubmersible platforms stand as a promising wave sensor even for extreme sea states, conditions in which other types of sensors (i.e. buoys, radars) may face diculties. Throughout the text, the main results of this work are presented and discussed. These results are mainly based on a dedicated experimental campaign, carried out with a scaled model of the Asgar-B platform, which is a semisubmersible platform located in the Asgard eld oshore Norway. Regarding the sea states tested during the experiential campaign, they were estimated by means of a motion-based Bayesian inference method, which has been developed for more than then years at the EPUSP. In order to allow the adoption of the semisubmersible platforms as a motion based wave sensors, this thesis provides two signicant improvements of the method: rst, a method to obtain an estimation of the linearized equivalent external viscous damping is provided. This analytical methodology allows to reduce the uncertainty of the transfer function of the platform close to the resonances of the motions and, as a consequence, it increases the accuracy of the inference approach. The second relevant contribution is the development of an alternative prior distribution, which is adopted to introduce the prior beliefs regarding the sea state in the Bayesian inference approach. It is shown that although some aspects of this novel approach require further evaluation in future work, the prior distribution developed has potential to improve the accuracy of wave estimates, and, at the same time, it signi cantly simplies the calibration procedures followed by other state-of-the-art Bayesian wave inference methods. Summing up, the inference approach proposed in this work provides the bases to use each semisubmersible oil platform, which stand as the most common type of oil platforms operated oshore Brasil, as a motion based wave sensor, thus contributing to the possible broadening of the Brazilian oceanographic measurement network. / A presente tese investiga a adoção de plataformas de petróleo semi submersíveis como base para inferência das condições de onda através do monitoramento de seus movimentos. O problema em questão consiste na solução do problema inverso de comportamento em ondas; ou seja, uma vez observados os movimentos da unidade flutuante (e conhecidas suas funções de resposta de movimento), estima-se as condições de ondas que os causaram. Este tipo de método já vem sendo empregado há anos para navios em curso e também para navios convertidos em plataformas de petróleo (os chamados FPSOs) com bons resultados. No entanto, o possível emprego de plataformas semi-submersíveis para o mesmo fim foi muito pouco explorado até o momento. Evidentemente, isso decorre da suposição de que, uma vez que essas estruturas são projetadas com o intuito primeiro de atenuar os movimentos decorrentes das ações de ondas, naturalmente elas não seriam bons sensores para esta finalidade. Os resultados apresentados nesta tese, todavia, contrariam tal suposição. De fato, as semi-submersíveis respondem de forma fraca as ondas, porem esta resposta é mensurável. Não apenas isso, mas, em comparação com os cascos de navios, esta resposta adere melhor às previsões dos modelos hidrodinâmicos lineares a partir dos quais as características da plataforma são estimadas. Ademais, o caráter eminentemente linear da resposta muitas vezes perdura inclusive para condições de ondas severas. Isto, por sua vez, torna as semi-submersíveis promissoras inclusive para a estimação de mares extremos, situação nas quais os outros tipos de sensores (boias, radares) enfrentam dificuldades. Nesta tese, a demonstração destes fatos é sustentada por um extenso conjunto de testes experimentais realizados em tanque de ondas com um modelo em escala reduzida de uma plataforma que hoje opera no Mar do Norte. Para tanto, foi empregado um método de inferência Bayesiana para estimação de ondas em navios que vem sendo desenvolvido na EPUSP há mais de dez anos. Para o estudo das semi-submersíveis o trabalho propõe duas melhorias importantes no método: A primeira consiste em um procedimento analítico para prever o amortecimento hidrodinâmico de origem viscosa dos movimentos observados do casco. Este procedimento permite reduzir as incertezas quanto a função de resposta em condições de ressonância dos movimentos com as ondas e, dessa forma, aumentar a confiabilidade do método. A segunda contribuição relevante é a proposição de uma alternativa para a chamada distribuição a priori originalmente empregada pelo método Bayesiano. Demonstra-se que, embora alguns aspectos desta nova metodologia ainda necessitem de uma avaliação adicional em trabalhos futuros, a nova distribuição tem grande potencial para melhorar a precisão das estimativas de ondas, além de simplificar de maneira significativa os procedimentos atuais de calibração do sistema de inferência. Em suma, o método de inferência aqui proposto abre caminho para tornar cada unidade flutuante de óleo e gás do tipo semi-submersível, um dos sistemas de produção mais frequentes nas costas brasileiras, um eventual ponto de monitoramento de ondas, contribuindo então para a possível ampliação de nossas bases de medição oceanograficas.

Rotordynamics is an important area in mechanical engineering. Many machines contain rotating parts. It is well known that rotating components can develop large amplitude lateral vibrations near certain speeds called critical speeds. This large amplitude vibration is called rotor whirl. This thesis is about rotor whirl. Conventional treatments in rotordynamics use what are called gyroscopic terms and treat the rotor as a one-dimensional structure (Euler-Bernoulli or Timoshenko) with or without rigid masses added to them. Gyroscopic terms are macroscopic inertial terms that arise due to tilting of spinning cross-sections. This approach, while applicable to a large class of industrially important rotors, is not applicable to a general rotor geometry. In this thesis we develop a genuine continuum level three dimensional formulation for rotordynamics that can be used for many arbitrarily shaped rotors. The key insight that guides our formulation is that gyroscopic terms are macroscopic manifestations of the prestress induced due to spin of the rotor. Using this insight, we develop two modal projection techniques for calculating the critical speed of arbitrarily shaped rotors. These techniques along with our prestress based formulation are the primary contributions of the thesis. In addition, we also present two different nonlinear finite element based implementations of our formulation. One is a laborious load-stepping based calculation performed using ANSYS (a commercially available finite element package). The other uses our nonlinear finite element code. The latter two techniques are primarily developed to provide us with an accurate answer for comparison with the results obtained using the modal projection methods. Having developed our formulation and the subsequent modal projection approximations, we proceed to validation. First, we analytically study several examples whose solutions can be easily obtained using routine methods. Second, we consider the problem of a rotating cylinder under axial loads. We use a semi-analytical approach for this problem and offer some insights into the role played by the chosen kinematics for our virtual work calculations. The excellent match with known results obtained using Timoshenko theory validates the accuracy of our formulation. Third, we consider several rotors of arbitrary shape in numerical examples and show that our modal projection methods accurately estimate the critical speeds of these rotors. After validation, we consider efficiency. For axisymmetric rotor geometries, we implement our formulation using harmonic elements. This reduces the dimension of our problem from three to two and considerable savings in time are obtained. Finally, we apply our formulation to describe asynchronous whirl and internal viscous damping phenomena in rotors.

Precast prestressed hollow core units are commonly used in the construction of the flooring system in precast buildings. These units without transverse reinforcement bars are designed to resist seismic loading as replacement for fixed-base precast wall panels in the construction of warehouse buildings. Thus, this research seeks to investigate the seismic performance of the units constructed as a subassemblage (single wall) subjected to biaxial loading and as a superassemblage (multi-panel) subjected to quasi-static lateral loading. A design procedure for warehouse building using precast hollow core walls under Damage Avoidance Design (DAD) is proposed. In addition, a risk assessment under Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) is evaluated using the latest computational tool known as Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). A comparative risk assessment between precast hollow core walls and fixed-base monolithic precast wall panels is also performed. Experimental results demonstrate that rocking precast hollow core walls with steelarmouring do not suffer any non-structural damage up to 2.0% drift and minor structural damage at 4.0% drift. Results revealed that the wall with unbonded fuse-bars and 50% initial prestressing of unbonded tendons performed the best compared with other types of energy dissipators. Furthermore, 12mm diameter of fuse-bar is recommended as there is no uplifting of the foundation beam during ground shaking. Hence, this type of energy dissipator is used for the construction of seismic wall panels in warehouse buildings. One of the significant findings is that the capacity reduction factor (Ø ) which relates to global uncertainty of seismic performance is approximately equal to 0.6. This value can be used to estimate the 90th percentile of the structures without performing IDA. Therefore, the structural engineers are only required to compute Rapid-IDA curve along with the proposed design procedure.

El análisis y el control de las vibraciones cobra especial importancia en muchas ramas de la ingeniería, en especial la ingeniería mecánica, civil, aeronáutica y automovilística. Tal es así que prácticamente se identi¿ca como un área independiente dentro del análisis dinámico de estructuras. Desde los comienzos de esta teoría, las fuerzas disipativas o de amortiguamiento han sido uno de los fenómenos más difíciles de modelizar. El modelo viscoso, por su sencillez y versatilidad ha sido y sigue siendo el gran paradigma de los modelos de amortiguamiento. Sin embargo, como consecuencia de la aparición de materiales con memoria se introdujo el fenómeno de la viscoelasticidad; Esta, si bien está también 'íntimamente ligada ' a la velocidad de la respuesta, necesito de la introducción de las denominadas funciones hereditarias, que permiten poner a las fuerzas disipativas como función no solo de la velocidad instantánea sino de la historia de velocidades desde el comienzo del movimiento, de ahí el termino memoria. De forma natural, el avance teórico introducido en el modelo supone también una complicación computacional, pues donde antes teníamos un sistema lineal de ecuaciones diferenciales ahora tenemos un sistema de ecuaciones integro-diferenciales. El análisis de las vibraciones libres de los sistemas con amortiguamiento viscoelástico conduce a un problema nolineal de autovalores donde la característica principal es una matriz de amortiguamiento que depende de la frecuencia de excitación. El estudio de la solución de autovalores y autovectores de este problema es importante si se desean conocer los modos de vibración de la estructura o si se pretende obtener la respuesta en el dominio de la frecuencia del sistema. El objetivo fundamental de esta Tesis Doctoral es doble: Por un lado, profundizar en el conocimiento del problema de autovalores de sistemas viscoelásticos proponiendo para ello nuevos métodos numéricos de resolución. Por otro, desarrollar un nuevo modelo viscoso que, bajo ciertas condiciones, reproduzca la respuesta del modelo viscoelástico con su¿ciente aproximación. La Tesis se divide en ocho capítulos, de ellos el cuerpo principal se encuentra en los seis centrales (Capítulos 2 a 7. Todos ellos son artículos de investigación que, o bien han sido publicados, o bien están en proceso de revisión en revistas contenidas en el Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Por esta razón, todos los capítulos conservan la estructura intrínseca de un artículo, incluidas una introducción y una bibliografía en cada uno. Los cuatro primeros capítulos (Capítulos 2 a 5) se centran en el estudio del problema no lineal de autovalores. Se proponen dos metodologías de resolución: la primera es un procedimiento iterativo basado en el esquema del punto-¿jo y desarrollado para sistemas proporcionales o ligeramente no-proporcionales (aquellos en los que los modos se presentan desacoplados o casi desacoplados). La segunda metodología (presentada en dos capítulos diferentes), denominada paramétrica, permite obtener soluciones casi-analíticas de los autovalores, tanto para sistemas de un grado de libertad como para sistemas de múltiples grados de libertad y dentro de 'estos, para sistemas proporcionales y no proporcionales. El estudio del problema de autovalores se completa con un capítulo dedicado a los autovalores reales, también denominados autovalores no viscosos. En 'él se demuestra una nueva caracterización maten ática que deben cumplir dichos autovalores y que permite proponer un nuevo concepto: el conjunto no-viscoso. Los dos 'últimos capítulos (Capítulos 6 y 7) analizan el Modelo Viscoso Equivalente como propuesta para la modelización de la respuesta de sistemas viscoelásticos. El análisis se realiza desde el dominio de la frecuencia estudiando la función de transferencia. En una primera etapa (pen último capítulo), de naturaleza más maten ática, se demuestra que la función de transferencia exacta de un modelo viscoelástico se puede expresar como suma de una función de transferencia propia de un modelo viscoso más un término denominado residual, directamente dependiente del nivel de amortiguamiento inducido y del acoplamiento modal (noproporcionalidad de la matriz de amortiguamiento). En una segunda etapa ('ultimo capítulo), se desarrolla una aplicación para estructuras reales formadas por entramados planos de elementos 1D amortiguados con capas de material visco elástico. Este tipo de estructuras ha permitido usar una variante mejorada del método paramétrico para la obtención de los autovalores, de forma que en este 'ultimo capítulo ha servido como nexo de unión de las metodologías más importantes desarrolladas en la Tesis. / Lázaro Navarro, M. (2013). The Eigenvalue Problem in Linear Viscoelastic Structures: New Numerical Approaches and the Equivalent Viscous Model [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/30062 / TESIS

The particular study case in this thesis is the shock test performed on the LISA Pathfinder satellite conducted in a laboratory environment on a dedicated test bed: Vega Shock Test Apparatus (VESTA). This test is considered fully representative to study shock levels produced by fairing jettisoning event at Vega Launcher Vehicle, which induces high shock loads towards the satellite. In the frame of this thesis, some transient response analyses have been conducted in MSC Nastran, and a shock simulation tool for the VESTA test configuration has been developed. The simulation tool is based on Nastran Direct Transient Response Analysis solver (SOL 109), and is representative of the upper composite of Vega with the LISA Pathfinder coupled to it. Post-processing routines of transient response signals were conducted in Dynaworks which served to calculate Shock Response Spectra (SRS). The simulation tool is a model of forcing function parameters for transient analysis which adequately correlates with the shock real test data, in order to understand how the effect of shock generated by the launcher is seen in the satellite and its sub-systems. Since available computation resources are limited the parameters for analysis were optimised for computation time, file size, memory capacity,  and model complexity. The forcing function represents a release of the HSS clamp band which is responsible for fairing jettisoning, thus the parameters which were studied are mostly concerning the modelling of this event. Among many investigated, those which visibly improved SRS correlation are radial forcing function shape, implementation of axial impulse, clamp band loading geometry and refined loading scheme. Integration time step duration and analysis duration were also studied and found to improve correlation.  From each analysis, the qualifying shock environment was then derived by linear scaling in proportion of the applied preload, and considering a qualification margin of 3dB. Consecutive tracking of structural responses along shock propagation path exposed gradual changes in responses pattern and revealed an important property that a breathing mode (n = 0) at the base of a conical Adapter translates into an axial input to the spacecraft. The parametrisation itself was based on responses registered at interfaces located in near-field (where the clamp band is located and forcing function is applied) and medium-field with respect to the shock event location. Following shock propagation path, the final step was the analysis of shock responses inside the satellite located in a far-field region, which still revealed a very good correlation of results. Thus, it can be said that parametrisation process was adequate, and the developed shock simulation tool can be qualified. However, due to the nature of shock, the tool cannot fully replace VESTA laboratory test, but can support shock assessment process and preparation to such test. In the last part of the thesis, the implementation of some finite element model improvements is investigated. Majority of the panels in spacecraft interior exhibited shock over-prediction due to finite element model limitation. Equipment units modelled as lump masses rigidly attached with RBE2 elements to the panel surface are a source of such local over-predictions. Thus, some of the units were remodelled and transient responses were reinvestigated. It was found that remodelling with either solid elements, or lump mass connected to RBE3 element and reinforced by RBE2 element, can significantly improve local transient responses. This conclusion is in line with conclusions found in ECSS Shock Handbook.