Random vibration

In mechanical engineering, random vibration is motion which is non-deterministic, meaning that future behavior cannot be precisely predicted. The randomness is a characteristic of the excitation or input, not the mode shapes or natural frequencies. Some common examples include an automobile riding on a rough road, wave height on the water or the load induced on an airplane wing during flight. Structural response to random vibration is usually treated using statistical or probabilistic approaches. In mathematical terms, random vibration is characterized as an ergodic and stationary process.