Fundamentals of waves and vibrations (Coursera)

Offered by École Polytechnique,
Fundamentals of waves and vibrations (Coursera)

Waves are everywhere. On water of course, but also in the air as you hear a plane, and under your feet during an earthquake certainly. Vibrations, too, are everywhere In your bike as you go over a bump, in you guitar as you play, and of course in your smartphone. You can guess that there is something in common behind all this. This is exactly the purpose of this course !

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So if you want to understand better waves and vibrations, and the relation between them and to use that knowledge in your field, this MOOC is for you. We are going to consider any possible domains of applications such as civil engineering, aerospace engineering, plant biomechanics, and many others! This is why we called the course “fundamentals of waves and vibrations”. There are so many phenomena and so many models that we need to work with you on the basic mechanisms. We look forward to see you in the course, and work together !

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Simple waves
Presentation of the models of continuous systems and application for non-dispersive waves.

WEEK 2
Complex waves
Introduction to non-dispersive waves and their properties.

WEEK 3
Modes
How combining waves with boundary conditions leads to the existence of particular solutions, modes.

WEEK 4
More modes
The concept of modes is now applied to a large variety of systems, both fluids and solids.

WEEK 5
Oscillators
The response of the oscillator to any type of forcing is explored, as a generic model of modal response.

WEEK 6
Dynamics using modes
Using the knowledge on the oscillator dynamics from the previous week, the response of general systems is built by modal recomposition.

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