DAMPED FREE VIBRATION

Damping is the resistance offered by a body to the motion of a vibratory system. The resistance
may be applied by a liquid or solid internally or externally.

For example, the motion of the car, wheels in water is resisted by the water itself, the wheels of
car are put to some resistance/friction because of road surface while moving on it. Because of
this resistance vibrations die out over a few cycles of motion.

Mass, stiffness and damping are the characteristics of a vibratory system. Out of three the first
two are the inherent properties of the system. If the value of damping is small in mechanical
systems, it will be having negligible influence on the natural frequency of the system the
vibratory system has some energy which is dissipated during the motion. At the start of the
vibratory motion the amplitude of vibration is maximum which goes on decreasing and finally it
is lost completely with the passage of time. The rate of decreasing the amplitude depends UPON

THE amount of damping.

The main advantage of providing damping in mechanical systems is just to control the amplitude
of vibration so that the failure occurring because of resonance may be avoided.

TYPES OF DAMPING
There are mainly four types of damping used in mechanical systems :
i. Viscous damping
ii. Coulomb damping
iii. Structural damping
iv. Non-linear, Slip or interfacial damping.

Viscous Damping. Viscous damping is the most commonly used damping mechanism in
vibration analysis. When mechanical systems vibrate in a fluid medium such as air, gas, water, or
oil, the resistance offered by the fluid to the moving body causes energy to be dissipated. In this
case, the amount of dissipated energy depends on many factors, such as the size and shape of the
vibrating body, the viscosity of the fluid, the frequency of vibration, and the velocity of the
vibrating body. In viscous damping, the damping force is proportional to the velocity of the
vibrating body. Typical examples of viscous damping include
(1) Fluid film between sliding surfaces,
(2) Fluid flow around a piston in a cylinder,
(3) Fluid flow through an orifice, and
(4) Fluid film around a journal in a bearing.

Damping Constant of Parallel Plates Separated by Viscous Fluid

Consider two parallel plates separated by a distance h, with a fluid of viscosity between the
plates.

Let one plate be fixed and let the other plate be moved with a velocity v in its own plane.
The fluid layers in contact with the moving plate move with a velocity v, while those in contact
with the fixed plate do not move.
The velocities of intermediate fluid layers are assumed to vary linearly between 0 and v, as
shown in Fig.
According to Newton s law of viscous flow, the shear stress developed in the fluid layer at a
distance y from the fixed plate is given by

𝑑𝑢
𝜏=𝜇
𝑑𝑦
Where 𝑑𝑢 𝑑𝑦 = 𝑣 ℎ is the velocity gradient.
The shear or resisting force (F) developed at the bottom surface of the moving plate is
𝜇𝐴𝑣
𝐹 = 𝜏𝐴 =
ℎ
Where A is the surface area of the moving plate. By expressing F as
𝐹 = 𝑐𝑣
the damping coefficient c can be found as
𝜇𝐴
𝑐=
ℎ
Coulomb Damping
When one body is allowed to slide over the other, the surface of one body offers some distance
to the movement of the other body on it. This resisting force is called force of friction. Thus
force of friction arises only because of relative movement between the two surfaces. Some
amount of energy is wasted in overcoming this friction as the surfaces are dry.
So it is sometimes known as dry friction. The general expression for coulomb damping is
𝐹 = 𝜇𝑅𝑁

The friction force acts in a direction opposite to the direction of velocity. The damping resistance
is almost constant and does not depend on the rubbing velocity. The three possible conditions of
coulomb damping are shown in Fig. with mathematical expressions.

Let us consider the leftward movement of the body the equation for which can be written as
𝒎𝒙+ kx = F

The solution of the above equation can be written as

𝑘 𝑘 𝐹
𝑥 = 𝐵 cos 𝑡 + 𝐷 sin 𝑡+
𝑚 𝑚 𝑘

Let us assume the motion characteristics of the system as

x = x0 at t =0 , 𝑥 = 0 at t =0
𝐹
Where B = 𝑥0 − 𝐾 , 𝐷 = 0

The solution becomes

𝐹 𝑘 𝐹
𝑥 = 𝑥0 − cos 𝑡+
𝐾 𝑚 𝐾

𝜋
This solution holds good for half the cycle. When 𝑡 = ω half the cycle is complete
n
 𝐹 𝐹
𝑥 = 𝑥0 − +
𝐾 𝐾
2𝐹
𝑥 = − 𝑥0 −
𝐾
This is the amplitude for left extreme position of the body. It is clear that the displacement x0 is
reduced by 2 F / k. In the next half cycle when the body moves to the rights initial displacement
will be reduced by 2F/k .So in one complete cycle the amplitude reduces by 4F/k. The amplitude
decay for coulomb damping is shown in Fig. The natural frequency of the system remains
unchanged in coulomb damping.

Solid or structural Damping

This is due to internal friction within the material itself. Experiment indicates that the solid
damping differs from viscous damping in that it is independent of frequency and proportional to
maximum stress of vibration cycle.

Slip or Interfacial damping

Energy of vibration is dissipated by microscopic slip on the interfaces of machine parts in
contact under fluctuating loads. Microscopic slip also occurs on the interface of the machine
elements having various types of joints. This type is essentially of a linear type.
K = 98010 N/m