Mechanical

Vibrations
Fifth Edition

Singiresu S. Rao
University of Miami

Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River Boston Columbus San Francisco New York
Indianapolis London Toronto Sydney Singapore Tokyo Montreal
Dubai Madrid Hong Kong Mexico City Munich Paris Amsterdam Cape Town
Vice President and Editorial Director, ECS:
Marcia J. Horton
Senior Acquisitions Editor: Tacy Quinn
Editorial Assistant: Coleen McDonald
Senior Managing Editor: Scott Disanno
Production Liason: Irwin Zucker
Production Editor: Sangeetha Parthasarathy,
Laserwords
Senior Operations Specialist: Alan Fischer
Operations Specialist: Lisa McDowell
Senior Marketing Manager: Tim Galligan
Marketing Assistant: Mack Patterson
Art Director: Jayne Conte
Cover Designer: Suzanne Behnke
Art Editor: Greg Dulles
Media Editor: Daniel Sandin
Full-Service Project Management/Composition:
Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India.

Copyright © 2011, 2004 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, 1 Lake Street, Upper Saddle
River, NJ 07458.

All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright,
and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a
retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request
to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, imprint permissions address.

MATLAB is a registered trademark of The Math Works, Inc., 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA 01760-2098

Many of the designations by manufacturers and seller to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the
designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

The author and publisher of this book have used their best efforts in preparing this book. These efforts include
the development, research, and testing of the theories and programs to determine their effectiveness. The author
and publisher make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programs or the
documentation contained in this book. The author and publisher shall not be liable in any event for incidental
or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of these
programs.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rao, S. S.
Mechanical vibrations / Singiresu S. Rao. 5th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-13-212819-3 (978-0-13-212819-3 : alk. paper) 1. Vibration. I. Title.
TA355.R37 2010
620.3 dc22 2010028534

Prentice Hall
is an imprint of
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-212819-3

www.pearsonhighered.com ISBN 10: 0-13-212819-5
To Lord Sri Venkateswara
Contents

Preface xi 1.7.5 Spring Constant Associated with the

Restoring Force due to Gravity 39
Acknowledgments xv 1.8 Mass or Inertia Elements 40
1.8.1 Combination of Masses 40
List of Symbols xvi 1.9 Damping Elements 45
1.9.1 Construction of Viscous Dampers 46
1.9.2 Linearization of a
CHAPTER 1 Nonlinear Damper 52
Fundamentals of Vibration 1 1.9.3 Combination of Dampers 52
1.1 Preliminary Remarks 2 1.10 Harmonic Motion 54
1.2 Brief History of the Study of Vibration 3 1.10.1 Vectorial Representation of
1.2.1 Origins of the Study of Vibration 3 Harmonic Motion 56
1.2.2 From Galileo to Rayleigh 6 1.10.2 Complex-Number Representation
1.2.3 Recent Contributions 9 of Harmonic Motion 57
1.3 Importance of the Study of Vibration 10 1.10.3 Complex Algebra 58
1.4 Basic Concepts of Vibration 13 1.10.4 Operations on Harmonic Functions 59
1.4.1 Vibration 13 1.10.5 Definitions and Terminology 62
1.4.2 Elementary Parts of 1.11 Harmonic Analysis 64
Vibrating Systems 13 1.11.1 Fourier Series Expansion 64
1.4.3 Number of Degrees of Freedom 14 1.11.2 Complex Fourier Series 66
1.4.4 Discrete and Continuous Systems 16 1.11.3 Frequency Spectrum 67
1.5 Classification of Vibration 16 1.11.4 Time- and Frequency-Domain
1.5.1 Free and Forced Vibration 17 Representations 68
1.5.2 Undamped and Damped Vibration 17 1.11.5 Even and Odd Functions 69
1.5.3 Linear and Nonlinear Vibration 17 1.11.6 Half-Range Expansions 71
1.5.4 Deterministic and 1.11.7 Numerical Computation
Random Vibration 17 of Coefficients 72
1.6 Vibration Analysis Procedure 18 1.12 Examples Using MATLAB 76
1.7 Spring Elements 22 1.13 Vibration Literature 80
1.7.1 Nonlinear Springs 23 Chapter Summary 81
1.7.2 Linearization of a References 81
Nonlinear Spring 25 Review Questions 83
1.7.3 Spring Constants of Elastic Elements 27 Problems 87
1.7.4 Combination of Springs 30 Design Projects 120
iv