Liang and Lee offer a textbook on random vibrations for students of mechanical and structural engineering that changes the conventional knowledge-based course into a methodology-based approach. It guides students in understanding the essence of vibration systems, the fundamental differences in analyzing the deterministic and dynamic responses, how to handle random variables, and how to account for random processes. Giving up the rigorous mathematical logic aspect, they move directly from abstract concepts and theories to real-world examples and practical engineering issues. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com) Focuses on the Basic Methodologies Needed to Handle Random ProcessesAfter determining that most textbooks on random vibrations are mathematically intensive and often too difficult for students to fully digest in a single course, the authors ofRandom Vibration: Mechanical, Structural, and Earthquake Engineering Applications decided to revise the current standard. This text incorporates more than 20 years of research on formulating bridge design limit states. Utilizing the authors’ experience in formulating real-world failure probability-based engineering design criteria, and their discovery of relevant examples using the basic ideas and principles of random processes, the text effectively helps students readily grasp the essential concepts. It eliminates the rigorous math-intensive logic training applied in the past, greatly reduces the random process aspect, and works to change a knowledge-based course approach into a methodology-based course approach. This approach underlies the book throughout, and students are taught the fundamental methodologies of accounting for random data and random processes as well as how to apply them in engineering practice.Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Randomness in SequencesPresented in four sections, the material discusses the scope of random processes, provides an overview of random processes, highlights random vibrations, and details the application of the methodology. Relevant engineering examples, included throughout the text, equip readers with the ability to make measurements and observations, understand basic steps, validate the accuracy of dynamic analyses, and master and apply newly developed knowledge in random vibrations and corresponding system reliabilities.Comprising 11 Chapters, this text:Reviews the theory of probability and applies it from an engineering perspectiveIntroduces basic concepts and formulas to prepare for discussions of random processesEmphasizes the essence of probability as the chance of occurrence in sample spaceCovers two important issues in engineering practice, the uncertainty of data and the probability of failureExplores the random processes in the time domainExplains the nature of time-varying variables by joint PDF through the Kolmogorov extensionExamines random processes in the frequency domainDiscusses several basic and useful models of random processesPresents a new set of statistics for random processesEmploys an approach to present important processes within the context of practical engineering problemsIncludes the generality of dealing with randomness and the difference between random variables and processesFocuses on the topic of vibration problemsAddresses the basic parameters of linear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systemsStresses a new method of random process referred to as time seriesDetails linear multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systemsDescribes the statistical analyses of direct approach based on model decoupling of proportionally and nonproportionally-damped systemsProvides materials on the applications of random processes and vibrationDiscusses statistical studies on random data and model identificationsDescribes the nonlinear phenomena and the general approach of linearizationHighlights a special method of Monte Carlo simulation, and moreRandom Vibration: Mechanical, Structural, and Earthquake Engineering Applicationseffectively integrates the basic ideas, concepts, principles, and theories of random processes. This enables students to understand the basic methodology and establish their own logic to systematically handle the issues facing the theory and application of random vibrations.