MEC 521:

Free Vibration
Damped
Free Vibration with Viscous Damping
•The viscous damping force F is proportional to the
velocity
F = −cx!

•C is the damping constant or coefficient of viscous

damping

•The negative sign indicates that the damping force is

opposite to the direction of velocity
Determination of Damping by Experiment

We often need to experimentally determine

the value of the damping ratio ξ for an
underdamped system. The usual reason is that
the value of the viscous damping coefficient c
is not otherwise well known.
To determine the damping, we may excite the
system by initial conditions and obtain a plot
of the displacement x versus time t, such as
that shown schematically in Fig. We then
measure two successive amplitudes x1 and x2
a full cycle apart and compute their ratio

x1 Ce −ζωnt1
= −ζωn (t1 +τ d ) = eτωnτ d
x2 Ce
⎛ x1 ⎞ 2π
δ = ln⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ = ζω nτ d = ζω n
The logarithmic decrement ⎝ x2 ⎠ ωn 1 − ζ 2
δ is defined as
δ
ζ =
(2π )2 + δ 2