Notes

On
Mechanical Vibrations

Basic Concepts
Vibration
Any motion that repeats itself after an interval of time is called vibration or oscillation.

Elementary parts of vibrating systems

A vibratory system generally includes
-

A means for storing potential energy (spring or elasticity)

A means for storing kinetic energy (mass or inertia)
A means by which energy is gradually lost (damper)

The vibration of a system involves the transfer of its potential energy to kinetic energy and kinetic energy to
potential energy, alternately. If the system is damped, some energy is dissipated in each cycle of vibration
and must be replaced by an external source if a state of steady vibration is to be maintained.

Degree of freedom
The minimum number of independent coordinates required to determine completely the positions of all
parts of a system at any instant of time defines the degree of freedom of the system.

Discrete and Continuous systems

Systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom are called discrete or lumped parameters systems, and
those with an infinite number of degrees of freedom are called continuous or distributed systems.

Classification of Vibration
Free and Forced Vibration
Free Vibration: If a system, after an initial disturbance, is left to vibrate on its own, the ensuing vibration is
known as free vibration. No external force acts on the system.
Forced Vibration: If the system is subjected to an external force, the resulting vibration is known as forced
vibration.
If the frequency of the external force coincides with one of the natural frequencies of the system, a condition
known as resonance occurs, and the system undergoes dangerously large oscillations.

Undamped and Damped Vibration

If no energy is lost or dissipated in friction or other resistance during oscillation, the vibration is known as
undamped vibration. If any energy is lost in this way, it is called damped vibration.

Linear and Nonlinear Vibration

If all the basic components of a vibratory system- the spring, the mass and the damper- behave linearly, the
resulting vibration is known as linear vibration. If, however, any of the basic components behave nonlinearly,
the vibration is called nonlinear vibration.

Deterministic and Random Vibration

If the magnitude of the excitation acting on a vibratory system is known at any given time, the excitation is
called deterministic. The resulting vibration is known as deterministic vibration. If the excitation is random,
the resulting vibration is called random vibration.

Spring Elements
A linear spring is a type of mechanical link that is generally assumed to have negligible mass and damping.
The spring force is proportional to the amount of deformation
=
The work done (U) in deforming a spring is stored as strain or potential energy in the spring, and is given by
1
= 2
2

Springs in parallel
= 1 + 2 + +

Springs in Series
1
1
1
1
= + + +
1 2

Damping Elements
The mechanism by which the vibrational energy is gradually converted into heat or sound is known as
damping. A damper is assumed to have neither mass nor elasticity and the damping force exists only if
there is relative velocity between the two ends of the damper.
It is difficult to determine the causes of damping in practical systems. Hence damping is modelled as

Viscous damping
In viscous damping, the damping force is proportional to the velocity of the vibrating body.

Harmonic Motion
Oscillatory motion may repeat itself regularly, or it may display considerable irregularity, as in the case of
ground motion during earthquake. If the motion is repeated after equal intervals of time, it is called
periodic motion. The simplest type of periodic motion is harmonic motion.
= ()
= sin()
= 2 () = 2
It can be seen that the acceleration is directly proportional to the displacement. Such a vibration, with the
acceleration proportional to the displacement and directed toward the mean position, is known as simple
harmonic motion.

Operations on Harmonic Functions

=
( )
=
= =

2 ( )
=
= 2 = 2
2

Thus the displacement, velocity and acceleration can be expressed as

= [ ] = ()
= [ ] = () = ( + 90 )
= [2 ] = 2 () = 2 ( + 180 )
It the harmonic displacement is originally given as () = ()
= [ ] = ()
= [ ] = () = ( + 90 )
= [2 ] = 2 () = 2 ( + 180 )

It can be seen that that the acceleration vector leads the velocity vector by 90 and the latter leads the
displacement vector by 90 .

Definitions and Terminology

The following definition and terminology are useful in dealing with harmonic motion and other periodic functions.

Cycle
The movement of a vibratory body from its undisturbed or equilibrium position to its extreme position in one
direction, then to the equilibrium position, then to its extreme position in the other direction, and back to the
equilibrium position is called a cycle of vibration.

Amplitude
The maximum displacement of a vibrating body form its equilibrium position is called the amplitude of vibration.

Period of oscillation
The time taken to complete one cycle of motion is known as the period of oscillation or time period and is denoted
by .
=

is the circular frequency in rad/s.

Frequency of oscillation
The number of cycles per unit time is called the frequency of oscillation or simply the frequency
=

=
2

f is the linear frequency in cycles per second or Hertz

Phase angle
1 = 1 sin()
2 = 2 sin( + )
-

The two harmonic motions are called synchronous because they have the same frequency or angular
velocity.

Two synchronous oscillations need not have the same amplitude and they need not attain their maximum
values at the same time.

The vector
2 leads the vector
1 by an angle, known as phase angle.

Natural Frequency
If a system, after an initial disturbance, is left to vibrate on its own, the frequency with which it oscillates without
external forces is known as its natural frequency. A vibratory system having n degrees of freedom will have, in
general, n distinct natural frequencies of vibration.

Beats
When two harmonic motions, with frequencies close to one another, are added, the resulting motion exhibits a
phenomenon known as beats.
1 = ()
2 = ( + )

1 + 2 = 2 ( ) cos ( + )
2
2

Whenever the amplitude reaches a maximum, it is called a beat.

Octave

When the maximum value of a range of frequency is twice the its minimum value, it is known as an octave band. 75150 Hz can be called an octave band.

Decibel
A decibel (dB) is originally defined as the ratio of electric powers/0 as

= 10log( )
0
0 =
Since electric power is proportional to the square of the voltage (X), the decibel can also be expressed as
2

= 10 log ( ) = 20 ( )
0
0
In practice, the above equations are also used to expressing the ratios of other quantities such as
displacements, velocities, accelerations, and pressures.

Harmonic Analysis
The motion of many vibratory systems is not harmonic but in many cases the vibrations are periodic.
-

Any periodic function of time can be represented by Fourier series as an infinite sum of sine and cosine
terms.

Fourier series Expansion

If () is a periodic function with period, its Fourier series representation is given by

0
() =
+ ( cos() + sin())
2
=1

Where,
=

2
=

Gibbs Phenomenon
When a periodic function is represented by a Fourier
series, an anomalous behaviour can be observed. As
the number of terms increases, the approximation can
be seen to improve everywhere except in the vicinity
of the discontinuity. Here, the deviation from the true
wave form become narrower but not any smaller in
amplitude. It has been observed that the error in
amplitude remains at approximately 9 percent, even
when . This behaviour is known as Gibbs
phenomenon.

Frequency Spectrum
The harmonic functions cos() sin() are called harmonics of order with period /. These
harmonics can be plotted as vertical lines on a diagram of amplitude versus frequency (), called the frequency
spectrum or spectral diagram.

Time and Frequency domain representations

The Fourier series expansion permits the description of any periodic function using either a time domain or
a frequency domain representation.
Example a harmonic function given by () = () in time domain can be represented by the
amplitude and the frequency in the frequency domain.
Using a Fourier integral permits the representation of even non-periodic functions in either a time domain
or a frequency domain.
-

Frequency domain representation does not provide the initial conditions. However, the initial
conditions are often considered unnecessary in many practical applications and only the steady
state conditions are of main interest.

Chapter 2
Free Vibration of Single Degree of Freedom Systems
A system is said to undergo free vibration when it oscillates only under an initial disturbance with no external forces
acting after the initial disturbance.

Free Vibration of an Undamped Translational System

1. Equation of motion using Newtons second law of motion
=
+ = 0
Equation of motion using DAlemberts principle
() = 0
() = 0
The fictitious force (or moment) is known as the inertia force (or inertia moment) and the artificial state of
equilibrium implied by above equations is known as dynamic equilibrium.
= 0

Principle of Virtual Displacements

If a system that is in equilibrium under the action of a set of forces is subjected to a virtual displacement, then the
total virtual work done by the forces will be zero.
-

Virtual displacement is defined as an imaginary infinitesimal displacement given instantaneously.

It must be physically possible displacement that is compatible with the constraints of the system.
The virtual work is defined as the work done by all the forces, including the inertia forces for a dynamic
problem, due to virtual displacement.

= = ()
= = ( )
Total virtual work done by all the forces is set equal to zero, we obtain
= 0

Since, the virtual displacement can have an arbitrary value, 0,

+ = 0
Principle of conservation of energy
A system is said to be conservative if no energy is lost due to friction or energy-dissipating non-elastic members. If no
work is done on a conservative system by external forces (other than gravity or other potential forces), then the total
energy of the system remains constant. Since the energy of a vibrating system is partly potential or partly kinetic, the
sum of these two energies remains constant.
+ =
Or
( + )
=0

1
= 2
2
1
= 2
2
+ = 0

2. Equation of motion of a spring mass system in vertical position

For static equilibrium,

= =
= ( + ) +
+ = 0
This indicates that when a mass is moves in a vertical direction, we can ignore its weight, provided we measure
from a static equilibrium position.

3. Solution
+ = 0
Let
() =
( 2 + ) = 0 2 + = 0

2
= ( ) =

= ( )

General solution
() = 1 + 2
Where, 1 and 2 are constants. By using the identities
= cos() ()
As () must be real,
() = 1 cos( ) + 2 sin( )
Initial conditions
( = 0) = 1 = 0
( = 0) = 2 = 0
Thus the solution subject to initial conditions is given by
() = 0 cos( ) +

0
sin( )

Harmonic Motion
Let
1 = ()
2 = ()
() = ( )
Where,
0 2
= 12 + 22 = (02 + ( ) )

2
0
= tan1 ( ) = tan1 (
)
1
0
Similarly,
Let
1 = ()
2 = ()
() = ( + )
Where,
0 2
= 12 + 22 = (02 + ( ) )

1
0
= tan1 ( ) = tan1 (
)
2
0

The phase angle can also be interpreted as the angle between the origin and the first peak.

Notes #
-

If the spring mass system is in a vertical position,

= ( ) = ( )

Thus, when the mass vibrates in a vertical direction, we can compute the natural frequency and the period
of vibration by simply measuring the static deflection . It is not necessary that we know the spring
stiffness and the mass.

() = ( )

() = ( ) = ( + )
2
() = 2 ( ) = 2 ( + )
The velocity leads the displacement by /2 and the acceleration leads the displacement by .
The response of a single degree of freedom system can be represented in the displacement-velocity plane
known as the state space or phase plane.
cos( ) = /
sin( ) =

By squaring and adding

2 2
+
=1
2 2
-

The graph of above equation in the (, )-plane is a circle and it constitutes the phase plane or state space
representation of the undamped system.
The radius of the circle A is determined by the initial conditions of motion.
In the (, )-plane, the plot will be an ellipse.

Rayleighs Energy Method

The principle of conservation of energy, in the context of an undamped vibrating system, can be restated as
1 + 1 = 2 + 2
If the system is undergoing harmonic motion
= max
The above equation is also known as Rayleighs energy method.

Free Vibration with Viscous Damping

1. Equation of Motion
-

The viscous damping force is proportional to the velocity and expressed as

=

is the damping constant or coefficient of viscous damping

Negative sign indicates that the damping force is opposite to the direction of velocity.
Application of newtons laws yields the equation of motion
+ + = 0

2. Solution
-

Let the solution of the form

() =

Characteristic equation
2 + + = 0

Roots
1,2 =

2 4

2
=
( )
2
2
2

These roots give two solutions

1 () = 1 1 2 () = 2 2

The general solution is given by the combination of the two solutions

1 () = 1 1 + 2 2

3. Critical Damping constant and the Damping ratio

- The critical damping is defined as the value of the damping constant for which the term inside square
root becomes zero.
2
( ) =
2

= 2 = 2 = 2

The damping ratio is defined as the ratio of the damping constant to the critical damping constant
=

=
=
2 2
-

Which gives
1,2 = ( 2 1)

The general solution can be written as

() = 1

(+ 2 1)

+ 2

( 2 1)

The nature of roots and the behaviour of the solution depends upon the magnitude of damping.

Case 1 Underdamped System ( < )

-

For this condition 2 1 is negative and the roots can be expressed as

1 = ( + 1 2 )
2 = ( 1 2 )

The solution can be written as

() = 1

(+ 2 1)

+ 2

(( 2 1)

() = sin(1 2 + )
() = cos(1 2 )
-

The motion described by the above equation is a damped Harmonic motion of angular frequency
= 1 2 =

It can be seen the frequency of the damped vibration is always less than the undamped natural
frequency .
The amplitude decreases exponentially with time ( ).
The decrease in the frequency of damped vibration with increasing amount of damping.

Case 2 critically damped System ( = )

-

In this case the two roots are equal

1 = 2 =

=
2

The general solution

() = (1 + 2 )

It can be seen that the motion is aperiodic as 0 as