DIAPADYN is an educational software tool for university-level courses in structural dynamics. It can be used during course lectures to demonstrate and convey ideas and concepts and as a hands-on tool for students as part of their homework assignments, workshops and projects.

DIAPADYN was developed by the University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier in collaboration with Top Modal within the framework of an educational project of the Physics Department whose goal was to complement and enrich a course in vibration analysis by the study of the tuning fork (diapason in French). The tuning fork is a seemingly simple yet intriguing and amusing multi-purpose structure that can stimulate a student’s desire to learn about its many secrets and allow him or her to better understand the underlying physical concepts.

The tuning fork is the structure par excellence for illustrating and understanding structural dynamics. On a very simple level it can be considered as a one degree-of-freedom system used as the building block for mode superposition methods. The tuning fork can also be used to illustrate discretization techniques such as the finite element method and the analysis of multiple degree-of-freedom systems via the modal approach. Advanced topics such as nonlinear behavior, acoustic coupling and optimization can also be addressed depending on the course level and objectives.

The tuning fork has continually evolved since 1711 when John Shore invented this very simple (yet very clever) instrument for tuning musical instruments. Today the quartz tuning fork (QTF) is at the focus of many scientific and industrial projects involving high performance probes and sensing devices. With its illustrious past, promising future, and well-kept secrets, the tuning fork will provide endless hours of discussion, reflection and enlightenment to the students throughout the course.

Use the link below to download the application. Please log in if the link is not visible.