Damped Oscillation

(Dao động tắt dần)

I. Origin:
- In the real world, oscillations rarely follow true simple harmonic motion. Friction of some sort usually
acts to damp the motion so it dies away, or needs more energy to continue.
- For instance: A guitar string stops oscillating a few seconds after being plucked, so that makes a fading
sound.

II. Setting a mathematics fuction:

- For a mass on a spring oscillating in a viscous fluid, the period remains constant, but the amplitudes of
the oscillations decrease due to the damping caused by the fluid.

- Consider the forces acting on the mass. Note that the only contribution of the weight is to change the
equilibrium position. Therefore, the net force is equal to the force of the spring and the damping force ( f D ¿ . If
the magnitude of the velocity is small, meaning the mass oscillates slowly, the damping force is proportional to
the velocity and acts against the direction of motion ( f D =−bv=−bx ' ¿ . The net force on the mass is therefore
the second Newton’s law show that:
−kx −b x ' =ma
- Thus the ODE of the damped mass–spring system is:

'' ' '' b ' k

m x + b x +kx =0 → x + x + x=0 ( ¿ )
m m
- We define the equation as a homogeneous linear and has constant coefficients. So that we consider its
supplemental equation:

b √b 2−4 mk
τ 2+
b
m m
k
τ + =0 → ∆=
b 2
m ( )
k
−4 → τ =
m 2m
±
2m
- So that there are 3 cases of the oscillation:
+ Case 1: b 2−4 mk<0
→ The system oscillates while the amplitude of the motion decays exponentially. This system is said to be
underdamped.
→We found a simple particular solution of (*):
 [( √ 4 mk−b 2
) ]
−b
t
2m
x= A 0 e cos +φ
2m
Then the displacement of the vibration can be described by the figure:

+ Case 2: b 2−4 mk=0

→ The system is said to be critically damped, an example of a critically damped system is the shock
absorbers in a car. It is advantageous to have the oscillations decay as fast as possible. Here, the system does not
oscillate, but asymptotically approaches the equilibrium condition as quickly as possible
→We found a simple particular solution of (*):
−b
t
2m
x=e ( A0 +t A 1 )
+ Case 3: b 2−4 mk>0
→ The system is said to be overdamped
→ An overdamped system will approach equilibrium over a longer period of time.
III. Graphing the whole case of damped system’s oscillation:

- The position versus time for three systems consisting of a mass and a spring in a viscous fluid:
(a) If the damping is small b 2−4 mk<0 , the mass oscillates, slowly losing amplitude as the energy is
dissipated by the non-conservative force.
(b) Where the damping is b 2−4 mk=0. The oscillation will die away quickly.
 (c) If the damping is very large b 2−4 mk>0 , the mass does not oscillate when displaced, but attempts to
return to the equilibrium position.