Development of Structural Similitude and Scaling Laws for Elastic Models

Scaled down models are widely used for experimental investigations of huge structures due to limitation in the capacities of testing facilities and moreover the experimentation on scaled models is less expensive. Also small scale models are often built with materials dissimilar to those of the prototype. However, only few studies have been carried out on the similitude laws for the prototype structures with small scale models built with a different material. In the present study, an attempt has been made to develop a scaling law for the free vibration response of structures along with the similitude requirement.