SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM (SDOF) SYSTEM

A. FREE VIBRATION
OBJECTIVE: Determination of Spring Stiffness from observed frequency with the help of additional lumped
mass.

THEORY: The frequency of free vibration of SDOF system is given by

=
By adding a known lumped mass m the changed frequency becomes
=
Hence,
=

( )
or =

or =4
OBSERVATION AND CALCULATION
Natural Added Changed natural Calculated
Spring
frequency (fn) Lumped mass frequency (fnc) Spring Stiffness Remarks
No
(Hz) (m) (gm) (Hz) (k) (N/m)

B. HARMONIC EXCITATION
SDOF systems with known natural frequencies are excited under harmonic excitation of different
frequency and resulting forced vibration frequency is observed.
Natural Frequency of considered spring (fn) = 3.78996 Hz

Sl. Harmonic Excitation Forced vibration

frequency (fnc) (Hz)
Remarks
No. Frequency (fh) (Hz)
 Base Excitation Experiment of SDOF System
OBJECTIVE: To measure the transmissibility of one degree of freedom, spring mass damper base excited
systems.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
A) Setup one degree of freedom spring-mass-damper system.
B) Setup the base motion exciter on the beam. The beam is excited by the motor through speed reduction,
so make sure the "Direct/Speed Reduction" option is checked on the measurement settings panel.
C) Connect the motor to the VFT DAQ device.
D) Connect the tachometer out to channel one of DAQ device.
E) Connect the sensor cable to the power box, and use BNC to BNC cable to connect the power box to
the Channel 2 of the VFT DAQ device.
F) Install an accelerometer on the beam and connect to channel 3 of DAQ.

PRCEDURE:
Set the motor for a sinusoidal sweep from 0.5Hz to 15Hz.
Acquire the data and review the transmissibility coefficient.
Change the lumped mass and repeat the experiment to review changed transmissibility coefficient.

Natural Maximum Frequency Maximum Frequency

Sl.
System Frequency Force (Hz) Displacement (Hz)
No. (Hz) Transmissibility Transmissibility
Basic System
1
with meff
System with
2
meff + m1
System with
3
meff + m2

Theoretical Aspect:
Usually, machines or parts of machines are harmonically excited through elastic mountings, which
could be modeled by spring and dashpots

Base Excitation

Displacement Transmissibility
Using the free body diagram, the differential equation of motion is
̈ + ( ̇ − ̇) + ( − ) = 0
Assuming a harmonically excited base , the differential equation of motion can be rewritten as
̈+ ̇+ = ( )+ ( )
This can be regarded as a mass-spring-damper system excited by two harmonics. Because of the linear motion,
we can use the principle of superposition to find the particular solution of the above equation to find the steady
state response of the mass
( )
( )= ( − )= ( − − )
( ) ( )
Where
=
Solving the amplitude and phase in a nondimensional form provides the displacement transmissibility (Td)
(  )
= = ( ) (  )
 Experiment on Logarithmic Decrement

OBJECTIVE: To measure the logarithmic decrement of a one degree of freedom mass-spring damper
system for various damping mediums: air and water.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
The data acquisition will calculate the logarithmic decrement based on 10 cycles of measured
displacement.
G) Setup one degree of freedom spring-mass-damper system.
H) Connect the sensor cable to the power box, and use BNC to BNC cable to connect the power box to
the Channel 1 of the VFT DAQ device.

PRCEDURE:
1. Empty the damper tube and remove the damper rod from the damper tube.
2. Pull the mass by hand. Release and click the "Start" button in the software simultaeneously.
3. After the data collection is done, click "Calculate". Based on 10 cycle period the software will
calculate the logarithmic decrement and damping ratio of the system.
4. Fill the damper tube with water and insert the damper rod into the damper tube. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

Damping Ratio By Detected

Sl. Damping Frequency
Logarithmic Exponential fit Remarks
No. Medium
Decay of envelop (Hz)
1
2
 Two Degree of Freedom System – Free Vibration
Free Vibration
OBJECTIVE: Investigate the response of a 2-Degree of freedom system with different mass, spring
stiffness, and damping.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
I) Empty the fluid damper tube.
J) Setup two degree of freedom spring-mass-damper system.
A) Connect the sensor cable to the power box, and use BNC to BNC cable to connect the power box to
the Channel 1 and 2 of the VFT DAQ device.

PRCEDURE:
Pull the mass by hand. Release and click the "Start" button in the software simultaneously.
Get the two system frequencies from VFT DAQ device.
Fill the damper tube with water and insert the damper rod into the damper tube.
Repeat the experiment to get the new system frequencies.

Attached known masses : m1 = g.m., m2 = g.m.

Sl. Damping
Natural Frequency (Hz) for Remarks
No. Medium
m1 m2
1
3
 Torsional Vibration – Vertical Module

Objective: Study the frequency response of the torsional system

Experimental Steps:
1. Setup the torsion system on the VFT top bar with two disks
2. Install accelerometers to the disk to measure torsional vibration.
3. Attach motor underneath the disk and connect to the control box.
4. Connect the Tachometer out to Channel one, and connect the accelerometers to the next
channels of DAQ device.
5. Set the motor to sweep from 0-35 Hz
6. Click on "Start" button on the Data Acquisition tab, collect data and see the response curve.
7. Determine the resonance frequency.
8. Run the motor control panel on the main panel, and set the motor speed to the resonance
frequency.
9. Change the "Type of data collection" to "single frequency".
10. Measure the steady state vibration signal of the disks.
11. Move the disk on which motor attached along the rod and repeat steps 5-10. (The disk can be
moved along the rod by loosening the chuck.)

Motor attached to: Disk _

Diameter of Distance of disks Resonance Detected Detected

disks (mm) from top grip frequency Frequency (Hz) Amplitude (deg)
Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 1 Disk 2 of Disk _ Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 1 Disk 2
 Beam Lateral Vibration Experiment: Concept of ODS
Operating Deflection Shape analysis (ODS), is a technique where vibration measurements are
made at many locations on a machine, and transfer functions are calculated between a reference
location and all the other sensor locations. These transfer functions contain phase and amplitude
information about the motion of the machine when it is running. The operation of the machine
itself provides the excitation forces for the measurement, and unlike FRF measurements, no
external excitation is used for ODS. After the measurements are made, a computer program
examines all the data and produces a series of animated 3-D pictures on the screen that shows the
motion of the machine parts at selected frequencies. The ODS analysis provides information to
the designer about how to modify the structure to solve the vibration problem by pointing out the
locations and directions in which the excessive motion is occurring. ODS is used for visualizing
the vibration deflection shapes of mechanical components typically during their standard
operation. It can also be used for simply determining the vibration pattern of such structures in a
laboratory environment prior to a more advanced study: for example a full modal analysis. So,
determining deflection shapes based on the ODS is a common practice in automotive and
aerospace R&D. Furthermore, ODS is a practical technique especially when excitation forces are
not measured, which often occurs when dealing with rotating machinery

Objective: To Observe the natural frequency of a beam system.

Experimental Steps:
1. Select one of the beams and choose the end conditions (pinned, clamped or free). For pinned
condition, housings with the dowel pin is used and the beam is slid into the slider dowel. For
clamped condition, housings without the dowel pins are used. A block is placed between the
housing and beam, and clamped together.
2. Connect the tachometer out to channel one on the DAQ device
3. Install the three accelerometers on the beam at 5”, 15” and 21” from left end of the beam, and
connect them to channel two, three and four of the DAQ device, respectively.
4. Mount the motor to the beam at the desired location.
5. Connect the motor to the VFT DAQ device.
6. Set the different beam lateral vibration parameters in the respective display panel and also set
the motor for a sweep from 0Hz to 80Hz.
7. Acquire the data and review the response curve to find the resonating frequency.
8. Use the cursor to choose frequency point and click on Show ODS to bring up animation panel.
9. Change the motor position and perform steps 5 to 8.
10. Complete the table in next page.
Beam Material ______

Sl. Motor Position (inch

Resonating Frequency (Hz)
No. from left end)