Earthquake Engineering MSc in Civil Engineering

Orthogonality and Normalization of Eigenvectors

Orthogonality
Consider the shear building with 2DOF which we have solved in the case of free vibration,
that is, found the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The stiffness and mass matrix were
given as:
m
N
5 5
5 10
K
1
]
1

and
kg
5 0
0 5
M
1
]
1

The eigenvalues were found to be:

1
= 0.382 and
2
= 2.618 and the eigenvectors:

'

'

618 . 1
1
a
a
X
21
11
1
and

'

'

618 . 0
1
a
a
X
22
12
2
It can be shown that:
X
1
T
M X
2
= 0 and X
1
T
K X
2
= 0 (1)
In general, in a system with n DOF with eigenvectors X
1
, X
2
, X
i
, X
j
, X
n
, for any two
different eigenvectors,
X
i
T
M X
j
= 0 and X
i
T
K X
j
= 0 , for ij (2)
This property of eigenvectors is known as the orthogonality.
Normalization
Previously, we normalized eigenvectors in the following way:
902 . 1 618 . 1 1 X X
2
1
T
1
+

'

'

851 . 0
526 . 0
902 . 1 / 618 . 1
902 . 1 / 1
X

1
644 . 1 618 . 0 1 X X
2
2
T
2
+

'

'

526 . 0
851 . 0
176 . 1 / 618 . 0
176 . 1 / 1
X

2
The matrix of normalised eigenvectors:
1
]
1

526 . 0 851 . 0
851 . 0 526 . 0
U
Eigenvectors can also be normalized with respect to the mass matrix, M. Say:
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Earthquake Engineering MSc in Civil Engineering
X
1
T
M X
1
= M
1
(3a,b)
1
1
1
M
X
Z
Here, M
1
is known as the modal mass or generalized mass, and Z is the eigenvector
normalized with respect to M. In our example:
{ } 09 . 18
618 . 1
1
5 0
0 5
618 . 1 1 M
1

'

1
]
1

'

'

380 . 0
235 . 0
09 . 18
618 . 1
09 . 18
1
Z
1
It is easy to show that:
Z
1
T
M Z
1
= 1 and
(4a,b)
Z
1
T
K Z
1
=
1
In the same way, the second eigenvector can be normalized so that the generalized mass,
M
2
= 1:
X
2
T
M X
2
= M
2
2
2
2
M
X
Z
{ } 91 . 6
618 . 0
1
5 0
0 5
618 . 0 1 M
2

'

1
]
1

'

'

235 . 0
380 . 0
91 . 6
618 . 1
91 . 6
1
Z
2
Again:
Z
2
T
M Z
2
= 1 and
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Earthquake Engineering MSc in Civil Engineering
Z
2
T
K Z
2
=
2
The matrix, Z, in which columns are the normalized eigenvectors, Z
i
, is known as the
modal or modeshape matrix of the dynamic matrix M
-1
K.
For this example:
1
]
1

1
]
1

235 . 0 380 . 0
380 . 0 235 . 0
Z
22 21
12 11
(5)
It can be shown that:
Z
T
M Z = I and
(6a,b)
Z
T
K Z =
1
]
1

2
1
0
0
Here I is the unit matrix of order n, and l a diagonal matrix of order n, with eigenvalues on
the diagonal; n is the number of degrees of freedom.
Forced Vibrations of MDOF Systems
We shall continue to use the same example of a 2DOF system. The system is now
undergoing forced vibrations (with the excitation force due to earthquake, wind, waves or
other loading).
The vector of external forces, F, is given as:

'

) t ( F
) t ( F
F
2
1
The equations of motion for this system are:
) t ( F x K x M +
(7)
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m
1
x
2
(t)
x
1
(t)
m
2
k
2
k
1
F
2
(t)
F
1
(t)
Earthquake Engineering MSc in Civil Engineering
or in a developed form:
) t ( F x k x ) k k ( x m
1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1
+ +
(8a,b)
) t ( F x k x k x m
2 2 2 1 2 2 2
+
These equations are coupled, that is, they both contain both of the unknown functions x
1
(t)
and x
2
(t). In order to solve these equations, it is necessary to uncouple them in some way,
so that each contains just one unknown function. We can substitute coordinates x by a new
set of coordinates, q, such that:
x = Z q and
q Z x
(9)
Here, Z is the modeshape matrix for the system. After inserting Eq. 9 into Eq. 7, it
becomes:
) t ( F q Z K q Z M +
(10)
This is now pre-multiplied by Z
T
:
) t ( F Z q Z K Z q Z M Z
T T T
+ (11)
Using the expressions 6a,b we can simplify this equation into:
) t ( F Z q q
T
+ (12)
In the developed form, the matrix equation (12) can be written as:
) t ( F ) t ( F q q
2 21 1 11 1
2
1 1
+ +
) t ( F ) t ( F q q
2 22 1 12 2
2
2 2
+ +
(13a,b)
These two equations are now independent and can be solved separately. The solution is
found depending on the load, using any of the methods for SDOF systems.
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