Evaluating mode selection methods for component mode synthesis

Component mode synthesis is a popular reduced-order modeling technique with a substructuring strategy in structural dynamics.The ideal goal of componentmode synthesis is to construct compact reducedmodelswith adequate accuracy for specific intended applications. In this paper, five a priorimode selectionmethods plus an a posteriori mode selectionmethod have been evaluated as applied to several representative structural dynamics problems to assess their relativemerits.The present evaluation offers a guideline for the informed use of thesemethods, and it is hoped that itwill provide a basis for the further development and/or unification of several mode selection methods. Although there is no clear winner for all the problem classes studied, a slight edge of an a posteriori method over the a priori methods is demonstrated for a certain class of problems, provided the analyst is willing to allow extra computational overhead.