PREFACE TO VIBRATION AND ACOUSTIC SERIES

The design engineer who is concerned with aerospace vehicles and their equipment faces an ever increasing demand for products with a performance which must be substantiated under stringent conditions of cost and environment. The customers for his products are becoming better educated in the ways of achieving, and what can be achieved by, competitively designed aircraft. Assuming the basic skill of the designer, no other single factor can contribute more to the economic preparation of a satisfactory, competitive engineering design than the data upon which that design is based and the speed with which those data can be found and applied.

The data concerning aircraft fatigue, in common with those relating to many other phenomena of concern to the engineer in industry, are widely scattered and when located are of variable quality and relevance to industrial application. The engineering designer does not, generally speaking, have the facilities required to collect and evaluate all the data available which may be applicable to each aspect of his or her work. Even if he or she had the desire to undertake such a task it may be difficult to allow the time necessary to prepare his or her own ‘working tools' at the expense of time spent in the application of unique personal skills, knowledge and experience to the particular job in hand. In any case, the customer will increasingly wish to view the design, not against some locally derived data, but against what can be demonstrated to be the best data which can be ascertained at any given time and which are vouched for by a significant cross section of the engineering and scientific community concerned with both the derivation and application of data in that particular field. It is ESDU's purpose to provide data of this nature relating to vibration and acoustic fatigue as in many other fields. ESDU has prepared this information for both the designer and the designer's customer and, by serving the needs of many, accomplishes the task at much lower cost than could apply to the individual performing it on his or her own behalf.

A qualified staff, with the assistance of many individuals and establishments throughout the world in research, industry and teaching, collects and evaluates the existing data. The staff discard that which is irrelevant or unreliable, correlating and distilling what remains into an authoritative working tool for engineering application. Throughout, their work is guided and monitored by an expert group and ad hoc working parties.