ME 530.

343: Design and Analysis of Dynamic Systems

Spring 2009

Lecture 5 – Mass-Spring Systems and

Equivalent Mechanical Systems
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

1 Today’s Objectives

Purpose of today’s lecture:

• Degrees of freedom
• Identify equivalent systems: meq ẍ + beq ẋ + keq x = feq
• Springs and dampers in series and in parallel

Reading: Palm Chapter 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.5 (ignore Laplace transform examples for now)

2 Degrees of Freedom

To begin modeling any dynamic system, you first know how many degrees of freedom there are in
the system. This will tell you:

• How many equations of motion you will finding

• The size of the matrix equation describing the system (if you need to put it in that form, as we
will in the last half of this course)
• How many and which system variables you will select

The number of degrees of freedom is the number of parameters that can be independently
varied in a system.
Test for simple mass-spring-damper systems: Can you hold one mass in a mechanical system at a
constant position, but still move another mass in the system?

k
m m

For complex or continuous systems (e.g., buildings), the concept of (finite) degrees of freedom is not
as well defined. You typically want to create a model that has enough degrees of freedom to appro-
priately characterize the system’s behavior, but not so many that the computational requirements
are too high.

1
3 Equivalent System Example

k1

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
r2
b
q m2
J1 r1 fk1
r2 f2
q
y
f1 f2 m2 fb
k2 J1 r1
m1 f1
x m1
f k2

First question: How many degrees of freedom? 1

Next question: In which variable(s) do we want to write the EOM? y
From last time, in terms of x:
  r 2 J   r 2  r 2
2 1 2 2
m1 + m2 + 2 ẍ + b ẋ + (k1 + k2 ) x=0
r1 r1 r1 r1

r2 J1
equivalent mass: meq = m1 + m2 r22 + r12
1
r2
equivalent damping: beq = b r22
1
r2
equivalent stiffness: keq = (k1 + k2 ) r22
1
The equation of motion of a second order, one-degree-of-freedom system should always be of the
form: meq ẍ + beq ẋ + keq x = feq
Putting this in terms of y, we have
  r 2 J 
1 1
m2 + m1 + 2 ÿ + bẏ + (k1 + k2 )y = 0 Left as an excercise to prove this!
r2 r2

So, for in terms of y, get a equivalent mass: meq = m2 + m1 ( rr12 )2 + J1

r22
equivalent damping: beq = b
equivalent stiffness: keq = k1 + k2
Note that this is quite different!

2
4 Elements in Parallel and in Series

What is meant by “parallel” and “series”?

Springs:

f k1
k1 k2
k1 y
fk2
m y y
k2 f k2
fk1 f k2
m m x
x
m

Parallel: mÿ = −fk1 − fk2

mÿ = −k1 y − k2 y
mÿ + (k1 + k2 )y = 0
=⇒ keq = k1 + k2
Series: 0 = −fk1 + fk2
fk1 = k1 y
fk2 = k2 (x − y)
mẍ = −fk2
mẍ = −k2 (x − y)
fk1 = fk2 = k1 y = k2 (x − y)
(k1 + k2 )y = k2 x
y = k1k+k
2x
2
mẍ + k2 (−y + x) = 0
mẍ + k2 (− k1k+k 2x
2
+ kk11 +k
+k2
2
x) = 0
mẍ + kk11+k
k2
2
x = 0
keq = kk11+k
k2
2
1 1 1
keq = k1 + k2 + ...

Questions: in parallel or in series?

xxxxxxx
xxxx xxx
xx
xx x
b xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xx

xx

1 b1
xx

xx

xxxxxxxx
xx
xxxxxxxxx

xx
x

xx

xxxxxxxxxxx

f
x x

xxxxxxx
x

m
xx x
xx
x xx

xx
xxx xxxxx
b2
xx

b2
x
xx

xx

x
xxx xx
xx
x xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx

3
mixed systems:

q k2 q k2

k1 k1
m
y

Laws for dampers → same thing!

series: b1eq = b11 + b12 + ...
parallel: beq = b1 + b2 + ...

4.1 Why are these simplifications useful?

Translational example

k1 k2 k5
k4 k7
m
k3 k6

k eq
m

Want to write: meq ẍ + keq x = 0. Exercise: compute meq and keq .

Rotational example:

J1 xxx J2 J3 J4
b1 xxx xxx xxx
b2 b3 b4

x m

meq ẍ + beq ẋ = 0 or Jeq θ̈ + beq θ̇ = 0

Exercise: compute Jeq and beq .

4
4.2 Example: Modeling the human fingertip

k1 b1 keq beq

k2 k3 b2 m
y
m
y

1 1 1 b1 b2
beq = b1 + b2 → beq = b1 +b2
keq2,3 = k2 + k3
1 1 1 k1 keq2,3
keq = k1 + keq2,3 → keq = k1 +keq2,3
keq = kk11 (k 2 +k3 )
+k2 +k3

meq ẍ + beq ẋ + keq x = 0

5 Revisit Example From Lecture 4

k2
m2 b2
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx k1

b1 b m1
3
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

First question: How many degrees of freedom? 2

Next question: In which variable(s) do we want to write the EOM? x1 and x2
Note: x2 is defined with respect to movement of first block, x1
Recall from last time:

mass 1: m1 x¨1 = fk1 + fb2 − fb1 − fb3

= −k1 x1 + b2 x˙2 − b1 x˙1 − b3 x˙1
m1 x¨1 + (b1 + b3 ) x˙1 + k1 x1 − b2 x˙2 = 0
| {z }
beq

5
mass 2: m2 x¨1 + m2 x¨2 = −fk2 − fb2
= −k2 (x1 + x2 ) − b2 x˙2
m2 x¨1 + k2 x1 + m2 x¨2 + k2 x2 + b2 x˙2 = 0

Consider the same system but now outer frame is not stationary, moving with x3 (t), written wrt a
stationary reference frame. This was left as an excercise from Lecture 4!
Still have x2 wrt x1 and x1 wrt stationary reference frame:

=⇒ fk2 = k2 (x1 + x2 − x3 (t))

fb2 = b2 x˙2
fb3 = b3 (ẋ1 − ẋ3 )
fb1 = b1 (ẋ1 − ẋ3 )
fk1 = k1 (x3 − x1 )

Newton’s laws:

mẍ = Σf general form.

mass 1: m1 ẍ1 = −fb3 − fb1 + fb2 + fk1
m1 ẍ1 = −b3 (ẋ1 − ẋ3 ) − b1 (ẋ1 − ẋ3 ) + b2 ẋ2 + k1 (x3 − x1 )
m1 ẍ1 + (b1 + b3 ) ẋ1 + k1 x1 − b2 ẋ2 = (b1 + b3 )ẋ3 + k1 x3
| {z } | {z }
beq feq1

Thus, can consider feq1 = (b1 + b3 )ẋ3 + kx3 to be the “equivalent force” due to ground motion!
For the second mass, we have:

mass 2: m2 (ẍ1 + ẍ2 ) = −fk2 − fb2 − k2 (x1 + x2 − x3 ) − b2 ẋ2

m2 ẍ1 + k2 x1 + m2 ẍ2 + k2 x2 + b2 ẋ2 = k2 x3 = feq2

which again looks like an equivalent applied force!

(Note if x3 = ẋ3 = 0, it looks like the old system with stationary ground.)