SEISMIC DESIGN– 5GC –2022-2023 ENISE

TD1 – Silo Free Vibration

Single Degree Of Freedom System
SIMPLIFIED DYNAMICAL ANALYSIS of a SILO

The following cad presents the idealization of a silo. It consists of four massless and
inextensional columns of cross sectional area a x a and a square rigid plate of mass m. At
time = 0, the silo is displaced horizontally by a force P. Then the force is suddenly removed
and the system starts to vibrate. For P = 200 kN, h = 5m, a= 0.3m, E = 21 000 MPa, m= 100
ton, determine:

1. The stiffness of the columns

2. The initial displacement
3. The damping ratio  of the system, if the horizontal displacement is reduced to 𝑢1 =
0,1. 𝑢0 after n=5 oscillations *
4. The natural pulsation and the natural period of the system (without damping)
5. The pseudo pulsation (damped pulsation)
6. The equation of the displacement as a function of time.
7. The displacement at time 𝑡1 = 2

* Remember that the displacement of a damping SDOF system as a function of time is: 𝑢(𝑡) = 𝑈𝑒 −𝜁𝜔0𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜔𝐷 𝑡 + 𝜙)
1 𝑢̇ +𝜉𝜔0 𝑢0 2𝜋
where 𝑈 = √(𝑢0 𝜔𝐷 )2 + (𝑢̇ 0 + 𝜉𝜔0 𝑢0 )2 and 𝜙 = 𝑡𝑎𝑛−1 ( 0
𝜔𝐷 𝜔𝐷 𝑢0
) where 𝜔0 =
𝑇𝑂
You have to express the displacement at time t+nTD , that is, after n complete cycles, and then to obtain the ration
𝑢(𝑡)
)
in order to get the relative amplitude decrement. You will see that this decrement depends only on n and The
𝑢(𝑡+𝑛𝑇𝐷
damping ratio 
𝑢(𝑡)
It’s more useful to express the decrement as a logarithm function: 𝛿 = 𝑙𝑛 [ ]
𝑢(𝑡+𝑛𝑇𝐷 )