Abstract
Beat phenomena is often experienced and reported by both racing car and certain heavy prime mover drivers. Due to the increasing frequency of these reports it is appropriate to examine the occurrence of this phenomena. This examination reveals that large dynamic magnification factors apply in multi mode vibration systems when excited at particular operation frequencies. The existence of these large dynamic magnification factors for these multi mode systems, which hitherto have been largely over- looked, have significant implications in regard to the design of vehicle suspensions, chassis and components. With the aim of overcoming this problem this paper first examines the existence and implications of the phenomena in regard to a single mode system. The analysis is then extended to multi mode systems typical of vehicles. This extension allows identification of a systematic and convenient design procedure to effect design checks using current FEA packages. The procedure should prove most useful for vehicle designers.