FREE AND FORCED VIBRATION OF A SINGLE DEGREE

OF FREEDOM MECHANICAL SYSTEM

It is vital that engineers involved in all aspects from the conceptual design through to the

maintenance after installation appreciate and understand the parameters which govern the vibration

in a mechanical system. The system could be a large office tower or an instrument package for a

space capsule. As a first approximation for many of these situations a single degree of freedom

(stuff) system is often used. The basic problem is to describe the motion of the system in terms of

the system parameters which include the mass, the stiffness, the damping and the motion or force

which is impressed on some part of the system. While the details of different problems may vary,

the response of all stuff systems are quite similar. This stuff model gives a good insight into the

understanding of the physical behaviour and response of mechanical and structural systems under

dynamic loading.

Objectives

To study the free and forced response of a single degree of freedom mechanical system.

Apparatus

- Air track with exciter and motion measuring apparatus

- Frequency counter
- Dual pen chart recorder
- Stopwatch
- Mass balance
- Selected weights

Background Theory

To analyze vibratory systems, it is necessary to determine the parameters mentioned above.

The simplest undamped system shown in Fig. 1 consists of a mass, m, and a single spring, ke, which

is the effective spring constant, i.e. it has the equivalent stiffness of the actual spring or springs.

1
 x

ke
m

Fig.1. Undamped

vibration system

The equivalent stiffness ke can be determined by the expression

force in direction of motion

ke (1)
displacement in direction of motion

Once the equivalent stiffness is known, the natural frequency of free vibration, p can easily be

determined. For the motion in Fig. 1 the differential equation is

d2x
m 2 + kex = 0 (2)
dt

so that p = (ke/m)1/2.

The equivalent stiffness of certain systems of springs is given below:

x
k1
ke = k1 + k2 (3)
m

k2

2
 x

k1 k2 ke = k1 + k2 (4)
m

k2 k1 ke= k1k2 / (k1+ k2) (5)

m

In practice while we need to know the natural frequency of free vibration, the system which

concerns us most is the forced one. Again while the details of each system can be considerably

different, the response of the system to the impressed force or motion are all similar. The system

to be studied on the air track can be idealized as a mass, m, supported by two springs, each of

stiffness k as shown in Fig. 2.

x
y(t) = Yo sin(t)
k k
m

Figure 2 Forced vibration system

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The end of one of the springs is given as a prescribed motion and the problem is to describe the

motion of the mass, m. The differential equation of motion of this system is

d2x
m 2 + 2 kx = kYo sin(wt ) (6)
dt

The steady state solution of this differential equation (i.e. the particular integral) is

x 1
= ( )
2 sin wt
(7)
Yo w
2 1 2
p

where p2 = ke/m = 2k/m = (natural frequency)2.

The solution is valid except when T = p. Yo/2 is the displacement which the mass, m, would

undergo if the motion, Yo, were applied very slowly in a quasi-static manner. The factor in brackets

then represents the effect of the displacement, Yo, being applied in a dynamic manner. The absolute

value of this quantity is called the dynamic magnification factor and when plotted looks like Fig.

3.

The point T/p = 1 is called resonance and generally in mechanical design it is to be avoided

as the results can be catastrophic. It is also clear that the magnification factor is greater than 1 as

long as T/p < %2. Above %2 the factor is less than one, i.e. the dynamic motion is actually less than

the quasi-static case.

4
 1
- 2
1 (/p)

1 2
/p

Fig.3. Dynamic magnification factor

All of the above discussion has been concerned with undamped single degree of freedom

systems. However, all real systems contain energy dissipation mechanisms so that the measurement

of damping is very important. The most common damping mechanism is to assume that the

damping force is linearly proportional to the velocity of the mass which results in an equation of

motion for damped free vibration given by

d2x dx
m 2 + c + kex = 0 (8)
dt dt

where c is the damping coefficient. This type of energy dissipation is called linear viscous damping.

The shock absorbers in a car are modelled quite well by this relationship. A dimensionless form of

the damping coefficient is given by the damping ratio, . (zeta), defined as

5
 c c
z= = (9)
2 mp 2 mk e

One way to measure the damping ratio is to perform a free vibration test. By giving the mass

an initial displacement the resulting response for small damping (0<.<1) is shown in Fig. 4.

0.10

0.05 x1
Displacement (m)

x2

0.00

-0.05

2 (pi)
p 1 -(zeta)^2
-0.10
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Time (s)

Fig. 4. Response of damped single degree of freedom system to an initial displacement for the case
of small damping. Example is for m=0.25 kg, k=15 N/m, c=0.4 kg/s, and A=0.1 m.

Note that the response shows exponentially decaying oscillatory behaviour with the equation for the

response being

(
x( t ) = Ae zpt cos 1 z2 pt ) (10)

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where A is the magnitude of the initial displacement. It can be shown that the damping ratio is

found from the solution of

x1 2pz
ln = (11)
x2 1 z2

where x1 and x2 are any two successive maxima as shown in Fig. 4. The term logarithmic decrement

is used to describe the left-hand side of Eqn.11.

Procedure

Free Vibration

1. Using the pan and selected weights measure the load-deflection relationship for the system as
supplied.

2. Measure the mass of the system.

3. By giving the system an initial deflection and then releasing it, measure the natural frequency
of free vibration. Do this with and without the displacement measuring apparatus attached.
Take several readings and average the result. (Use the stopwatch only.)

4. Attach the displacement measuring apparatus. Give the smaller mass an initial displacement and
then let it go. Record the resulting oscillation on the strip chart. Repeat this procedure twice.

5. Using a different mass, repeat 2, 3, and 4.

Forced Vibration

1. Calibrate the strip chart recorder by moving each of the two pointers on the air track a known
amount (for example 100 mm) and adjusting the strip chart recording pen.

2. Measure the forced response of the system by recording the two displacements for at least four
frequencies below and four above resonance. Also record the frequency as measured by the
digital counter and from the strip chart. Note the phase relationship between the two measuring
points of each setting. Take several readings at each point.

3. Repeat procedure 2 for the other mass.

Note: The measurements in 2 and 3 should be taken both from the air track scale directly as well

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 as from the strip chart. Do not run the air track near enough to resonance so that the
amplitudes of vibration become excessive.

Damping (Free Vibration Test)

Prepare the apparatus for a free vibration test. Give the smaller mass an initial displacement and
then let it go. Record the resulting oscillation on the strip chart. Repeat this procedure twice.
Also use the larger mass.

Report

1. Calculate the effective stiffness, ke of the system from the load-deflection data. Use a best fit
straight line. Calculate the natural frequency, p of the system for both masses and compare these
with the measured free vibration data (use units of cycles per second or Hertz for frequency).
Compare the free vibration measurements to those obtained with the measurement system
attached.

2. Calculate the average effective mass added to the system when the measurement system was
added by using ke and the measured natural frequency. Assuming that both pulleys are uniform
disks and are the same thickness, calculate the effective mass of each pulley.

3. From the free vibration chart traces, select several pairs of maxima along the decaying
oscillation and calculate an average damping ratio, .. Comment on how well or poorly the linear
viscous damping model approximates the energy dissipation in the air track system. Justify your
answer.

4. Calculate the experimental dynamic magnification factor, 2x/Yo from the measured
displacements for both masses and plot these values versus frequency ratio, T/p. Indicate on the
plot a) the theoretical DMF ( =1/(1-T2/p2) ) as a solid line and b) the regions of the curve where
the two masses are in-phase and 180 out-of-phase. Provide separate graphs for each mass.
Comment on the agreement between theory and experiment.

5. By drawing a free-body diagram of the main mass as well as the measuring system pulleys, show
how the inertia of the pulleys affects the natural frequency calculated using the mass and
stiffness separately. Assuming the mass of the pulleys are m1 and m2, how much of m1 and m2
should be added to the main mass to correct the natural frequency calculation?