This document provides guidance to select a vibration generator that will be used to evaluate frequency responses of a test structure or to study how vibration grows/decreases along the structure. These structural dynamics tests can be carried out under field or laboratory conditions (see the ISO 7626 or ISO 10846^{[ 4][ 5][ 6][ 7]} series).

This document describes the selection procedure in terms of the force developed by a single vibration generator. Meanwhile, to move massive structures such as dams or bridges, an assembly of vibration generators is usually applied. Properly phased generators produce in total the same force as calculated for a single vibration generator (see 6.2.6).

Guidance also can be applied for the selection of equipment to be used for modal testing to determine natural frequencies, modal shapes and damping in a structure; however, for such a test, more factors than covered by this document usually need to be considered.

This document deals only with translational excitation. For equipment applied to generate angular vibration, see Reference [8].