Abstract
A very frequently applied boundary condition in problems involving modelling the dynamic behaviour of beams and panels is a simple support. This type of boundary condition is particularly used in the research area of active control of vibrations on panels. However, the practical implementation of this boundary condition in the laboratory is not at all trivial, especially when high accuracy is required. In this paper, various possible practical implementations of a simply supported panel are considered. A suitable method is selected and investigated experimentally. The results from a forced vibration test are compared with those obtained from theory in order to verify the relative accuracy of the approach. The effect of the relative distance between the panel surface and a solid boundary on the fundamental resonant response frequency is experimentally investigated, as well as changes produced by fluctuations in the laboratory temperature. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.