Measurement of Structural Damping and Equivalent Mass of a Vibrating Beam 1.

Introduction: In this experiment the frequency Response Function (FRF) will be used to: a) determine the damping ratio, and equivalent damping coefficient of a vibrating beam b) estimate the equivalent mass of a vibrating beam c) determine the equivalent stiffness coefficient of a vibrating beam Consider a vibrating beam with two layers of damping material (plastic strips)as shown in figure 1.

E, I, L,mbeam

mtip

Damping Material

Figure 1 This beam can be represented by a simple single degree of freedom (SDOF) system. The damped SDOF model and its free body diagram are shown in figure 2.
m k
C

ky

FBD Figure 2 The equation of motion for this model is given by (1) Where m, C, and k are the equivalent mass, damping and stiffness coefficients respectively. Note that from the previous experiment the equivalent mass and stiffness can be measured or determined from equations 2, and 3.

m=mtip+0.24 mbeam

(2)

(3)

2. Estimating mass of a system based on Frequency Response Function (FRF) Consider a damped system subjected to a harmonic force f(t) as shown in figure 3.

k m C C F0 cos

Figure 3 The equation of motion for this system is given by F0 cos (4)

As shown in figure 3 for a harmonic force the response of this system is also a harmonic function. Assume a solution of x . The amplitude X, and phase angle , are determined based on this assumed solution and its derivatives. (5) x, , and and (6)

are substituted into equation 4 to get (8)

Equation 7 could be modified to represent FRF. Note that the amplitude of the acceleration function in equation 6 is . Therefore equation 7 can be written as OR (9)

In fact equation 9 represents the FRF that was generated by the Real Time Analyzer (RTA) in the previous experiment (see figure 4). Expanding the terms in the denominator results in (10) Assume that the damping coefficient C is very small and is much greater than n. In this case the only dominant term in the denominator is and the remaining terms in the denominator could be ignored.

Equation 10 can be now simplified to OR (11)

Equation 11 shows that mass of a system can be estimated from its FRF. That is at large values of , the plot becomes asymptotic to a value of 1/m (see figure 4). Note also the unit of , which is the correct unit for 1/m. is

Bandwidth

Figure 4 3. Use Frequency Response Function (FRF) to determine damping ratio The FRF can be also used to determine damping ratio of a mechanical system. Equation 7 can be written in a non dimensional form as

(12) Where is F0/k, and damping ratio , as well as frequency ratio r are defined by

The plot of

versus frequency ratio r for a given damping ratio

is shown in figure 5. Notice

that the two plots in figures 4, and 5 are very similar.

Bandwidth

Figure 5 There are two methods of finding damping ratio using FRF plot. In the first method the maximum value (Q) (or ) is used, and in the second method the half power points 1, and 2 are used to determine the damping ratio. a) Determine damping ratio using the quality factor Q As is shown in figure 5 for n (r=1), the ratio of
or Q reaches its maximum value.

Therefore in equation 12, for a r=1, Q is given by

(13) However in this experiment FRF ( is measured, and

) should be corrected in equation 13.

There is a relationship between these two ratios. As it is shown in equation 6,

Therefore damping ratio

can be evaluated by (14)

b) Determine damping ratio using method the half power points 1, and 2. As it is shown in figure 5, the half power points are obtained by finding the intersections of line and the given FRF. Note that from equation 13, and r2 ( ) are determined by (15) The two roots of equation 15 are given by (16) For small damping ratios ( equations 16 can be simplified. Assume that to get . The intersection points r1 ( ),

Equations 17, and 18 are subtracted to get (19) The damping ratio in equation 19 is then given by.