Note: A critical error was discovered in the update mechanism. Please run vtbud to update your code if you get an error including mention of vtbchk. Thank you.
The Engineering Vibration Toolbox is a set of educational programs written in MATLAB by Joseph C. Slater. Also included are a number of help files, demonstration examples, and data files containing raw experimental data. The codes include single degree of freedom response, response spectrum, finite elements, numerical integration, and phase plane analysis. It is included free with the text Engineering Vibration by Dr. Daniel J. Inman (Prentice Hall, 1994, 1998, 2001,...) and is provided as a download for later editions.
The most current version, for use with the professional and student versions of MATLAB 4 or later, can be obtained via the Engineering Vibration Toolbox web page for more information. Please email me directly at if you have difficulty with this link.
If you have not already installed MATLAB or the Student Edition of MATLAB, do so now. You should be somewhat familiar with MATLAB before running this software.
Regular updates are made to the toolbox. Please send me any problems you've developed for the toolbox, I'd like to begin a collection of problems that better take advantage of its capabilities.
To contribute to the toolbox, please fork this repository, clone to your desktop, and add the vtoolbox directory to your Matlab path.
To submit a change, please see the document Contributing.rst.
Please go to Engineering Vibration Toolbox web page for installation instructions.
The Engineering Vibration Toolbox will check for updates every 7 days by default. To change this default, redefine the variable chkskip in the file vtbchk.m. Unfortunately this will be written over at the next update.
The files on this disk will load/run on all platforms if transferred properly. Files with the extension .mat, .exa, .con, .eqn, and .out are binary files compatible on all platforms. To load them type "load filename -mat". Files with no extension or the extension .m are text files and must be transferred properly to assure that the end-of-line characters are correct for your platform.
Typing help vtoolbox will provide a table of contents of the toolbox. Likewise, typing help vtb? will provide a table of contents for the files related to chapter ?. Typing 'help codename' will provide help on the particular code. Note that the 'filename' is 'codename.m'.
Engineering Vibration Toolbox commands can be run by typing them with the necessary arguments just as any other MATLAB commands/functions. For instance, vtb1_1 can be run by typing "vtb1_1(1,.1,1,1,0,10)". Many functions have multiple forms of input. The help for each function shows this flexibility.
If you have any difficulty, please email me.
Please visit the Engineering Vibration Toolbox web page.
Support for the Engineering Vibration Toolbox has come from a number of sources. First and foremost, Daniel J. Inman, who initially tasked myself and Donald J. Leo to write version 3 of the software for his text "Engineering Vibration" by Dr. Daniel J. Inman (Prentice Hall, 1994). I also thank the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Wright State University for providing the computer resources for developing the MATLAB 4 version of the software. Perhaps the people who have given the most are my students who painfully experienced every piece of beta code, often at the least opportune times. Thanks is also given to Dr. Maurice Petyt and Robert C. Chiroux for their patience in testing numerous 4.0 beta versions of this software.
The Engineering Vibration Toolbox is licensed free of charge for educational use. For professional use, users should contact the Engineering Vibration Toolbox author directly.
MATLAB is a registered trademark of the MathWorks, Inc. Mac(intosh) is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
Joseph C. Slater is the copyright holder of the Engineering Vibration Toolbox. Neither the author, Prentice Hall, nor Wright State University make any warranty with regard to merchantability or fitness for any given purpose with regard to the software. All rights are retained. No permission is given to anyone other than myself, the MathWorks and Prentice Hall to distribute this software in any manner whatsoever.