Introduction to Vibrations – A Brief Summary

Definition: Vibration is defined as oscillatory motion of dynamic systems. The

motion could be displacement, velocity, acceleration and so on.

Types: Vibration can be categorized in different ways. One of the ways is to classify
vibrations into free (natural) and forced (in some cases this is called steady-state)
vibrations. The free vibrations are due to the initial conditions and the forced
vibrations are due to the external force or excitation acting on the system. In general,
a dynamic system has initial conditions and may also be subjected to an external
excitation, and hence the system response is found for each free and forced vibration
cases and added together to get the total system response. Both free and forced
vibrations can be further split into damped and undamped vibrations depending upon
whether the system has viscous damping (damped) or not (undamped).

Free Vibrations: A typical example of undamped free vibrations is a spring-mass

system, as shown below. The system is said to have a single degree-of-freedom
because the only variable x(t) is enough to describe the motion.

x(t)
k
m

Friction free smooth surface

The equation of motion (EOM) of the above system is written as m x + k x = 0 . The
above equation can also be written as x + ωn2 x = 0 , where ωn = k / m is known as the
natural frequency of the system in rad/s. Physically, it represents the frequency for an
undamped system where the system gets into resonance and vibration magnitude
becomes high (theoretically infinite). Assuming that the system has the initial
conditions (IC) of x(0)=x0 and x (0) = v0, the system response can be found using
either the assumed form of solution or the Laplace transform. The assumed form of
solution goes with a form of solution of x(t)=Asin(ωnt + φ), where A is the amplitude
and φ is the phase angle of vibrations, which can be easily determined from IC as
A = x02 + v02 / ωn2 and φ = tan −1 (ωn x0 / v0 ) .

In the case of damped (viscous) free vibrations, the above system is added a dashpot
with a viscous damping constant of b, for which the EOM becomes m x + bx + k x = 0
or in a standard form x +2ζωn x + ωn2 x = 0 , where ζ is known as the damping ratio
defined as ζ= b /(2 km ) . Depending upon the values of ζ, the damped vibrations are
grouped as 1)critically damped (ζ=1), 2) overdamped (ζ>1) and 3) underdamped
(0<ζ<1). Among these three cases, only the underdamped case results in oscillations.
The critically damped vibrations correspond to the case when the roots of the equation
x +2ζωn x + ωn2 x = 0 are real and same (repeated roots), which results in a response of
x(t)=(c1+c2t) e − ωnt , where c1 and c2 are constants determined from the IC as c1=x0 and
c2=v0+ωnx0. For the overdamped case, the roots are real and distinct, and the response
is calculated assuming a form of solution of x(t)=c e λ t . Substituting this solution in the
above equation yields λ2+2ζωnλ+ ωn2 =0, from which two values of λ are found as
λ1,2=ωn(−ζ± ζ 2 − 1 ). Therefore, the response of the system becomes
λ2t
x(t)=c1 e λ 1 t +c2 e , where c1 and c2 are obtained from the IC. In the case of
underdamped vibrations, there are two complex conjugate roots and the response
becomes x(t)=Ae−ζ ωnt sin(ωdt + φ), where ωd=ωn 1 − ζ 2 is called the damped natural

frequency, and A and φ are found from the IC as A= (x ζ /

0 1 − ζ 2 + v0 / ωd ) +x
2
2
0

and φ = tan −1 [ωd x0 /(v0 + x0 ζωn )] . Typical curves for these three cases are shown
below.

Forced (Steady-State) Vibrations: As sown below, a spring-mass-damper system is

now assumed to be acted upon by a sinusoidal force of the form f(t)= f sin(ωt), where
ω is the frequency of vibrations of the applied force. An unbalanced force on a
rotating machine manifests itself in the form of a sinusoidal force with a magnitude of
f =murω2, where mu is the unbalance mass, r is the unbalance distance from the
center of rotation and ω is the rotational machine speed in rad/s.

x(t)
b
f(t)
k m

Friction free smooth surface

 1
The EOM of the system in standard form is given as x +2ζωn x + ωn2 x = f (t ) =
m
ωn2
f (t ) , for which the transfer function is computed as G(s) = X(s)/F(s) =
k
ωn2
. The total system response x(t) is composed of responses to the
k ( s 2 + 2ζωn s + ωn2 )
IC and to the force f(t). Assuming that the IC are all zero, x(t) becomes same as the
steady-state response, which can be easily calculated via sinusoidal transfer function
ωn2
G(jω) as x(t)=|G(jω)| f sin(ωt+φ), where |G(jω)|= =
k (ωn2 − ω 2 ) 2 + (2ζωn ω) 2
1
2ζωn ω
with Ω=ω/ωn and φ=Im[G(jω)]/Re[G(jω)] = −tan−1 ω 2 − ω 2 =
n
k (1 − Ω 2 ) 2 + (2ζΩ ) 2
2ζΩ f 1 2ζΩ
−tan−1 1 − Ω 2 . Thus, we obtain x(t)= sin(ωt−tan−1 1 − Ω 2 ),
k (1 − Ω 2 ) 2 + (2ζΩ ) 2
f
where the factor is called the static displacement. The amplitude and phase angle
k
of x(t) are plotted below for different values of Ω and ζ.
The vertical axis for the amplitude graph stands for the magnification factor
1
and the vertical axis for the phase angle represents the negative
(1 − Ω ) + (2ζΩ ) 2
2 2

phase angle in rad. It is clear from the amplitude graph that for small values of
damping ratio ζ, the vibration magnitude becomes very large when Ω=1, i.e. ω=ωn.
Furthermore, it is evident from the phase angle graph that regardless of the values of
ζ, for Ω=1 the phase angle becomes around −1.57 rad or −90o, indicating that when
ω=ωn, then φ = −90o. This observation can be used to identify resonance problems in
dynamic systems.

Free Vibrations of Two-Degree-of-Freedom Systems: Many times, it may happen

that a dynamic system has more than one-degree-of-freedom, i.e. the system has multi
degree-of-freedom with more than one variable to describe the system behavior. A
two-degree-of-freedom system with two masses is shown below.

x1(t) x2(t)
k k k
m m

Friction free smooth surface

The EOM for this system can be written as

mx1 + 2kx1 − kx2 = 0

mx2 + 2kx2 − kx1 = 0

The solutions are assumed as x1(t)=Asin(ωnt + φ) and x2(t)=Bsin(ωnt + φ). Substituting

these in the above equations yields
 (−mA ωn2 +2kA−kB) sin(ωnt + φ) = 0
(−mB ωn2 +2kB−kA) sin(ωnt + φ) = 0

To satisfy the above equations, we should have the following

−mA ωn2 +2kA−kB = 0 (1)

−mB ωn2 +2kB−kA = 0 (2)
In matrix form,

⎡2k − mωn2 − k ⎤ ⎡ A⎤ ⎡0⎤

⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥=⎢ ⎥
⎣ −k 2k − mωn2 ⎦ ⎣ B ⎦ ⎣0⎦

For the non-trivial solution, we should have the determinant of the above matrix to be
zero, i.e.

2k − mωn2 −k
=0
−k 2k − mωn2

Or, (2k − mωn2 ) 2 − k 2 = 0 , from which we obtain two natural frequencies (or modes)
computed as
ωn1 = k / m and ωn 2 = 3k / m

When we substitute these natural frequencies in equation (1) or (2) above, we obtain
two relations between A and B or two mode shapes as

ωn = ωn1 → A/B = 1
ωn = ωn2 → A/B = −1

The general solutions (responses) for arbitrary initial conditions are given by

x1(t)=A1 sin(ωn1t + φ1) + A2 sin(ωn2t + φ2)

x2(t)=A1 sin(ωn1t + φ1) − A2 sin(ωn2t + φ2)

where A1, A2, φ1 and φ2 are found from four IC of x1(0)=x10, x1 (0) = v10 , x2(0)=x20 and
x 2 (0) = v 20 .

Forced Vibrations of Two-Degree-of-Freedom Systems: When the two masses of

the above system are acted upon by sinusoidal external forces of f1(t)= f1 sin(ωt) and
f2(t)= f 2 sin(ωt), the EOM become

mx1 + 2kx1 − kx2 = f1 (t )

mx2 + 2kx 2 − kx1 = f 2 (t )
Assuming solutions of the form x1(t)=Asin(ωt) and x2(t)=Bsin(ωt) and substituting
them in the above equations yields the following (in matrix form)

⎡2k − mω 2 − k ⎤ ⎡ A⎤ ⎡ f1 ⎤
⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥=⎢ ⎥
⎣ −k 2k − mω 2 ⎦ ⎣ B ⎦ ⎣ f 2 ⎦

which can be solved for A and B as

(2k − mω 2 ) f1 + kf 2
A=
(2k − mω 2 ) 2 − k 2
kf1 + (2k − mω 2 ) f 2
B=
(2k − mω 2 ) 2 − k 2

It is clear that values of A and B become infinite when ω=ωn1 or ω=ωn2, i.e. when the
external frequency ω reaches either of ωn1 or ω=ωn2, then the magnitudes of x1(t) and
x2(t) become theoretically infinite (since there is no damping in the system).