Abstract
This paper presents the geometrical methodology to decouple the vibration modes of an elastically supported single rigid body in three-dimensional space. It is shown that the vibration modes can be decoupled by placing the center of elasticity at suitable locations and thereby yielding the plane(s) of symmetry for the given stiffness matrix. The developed methodology has been applied to the actuator supported by the 4-wire suspensions in optical discs, which has one plane of symmetry. For this numerical example, the axes of vibrations have been computed and illustrated with the natural frequencies. The forced response at the objective lens is represented and its geometrical interpretation has been explained as the mutual moment between the axis of vibration and the applied wrench times the line coordinates of the axis of vibration.