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Fundamentals of
Structural Dynamics
This page intentionally left blank
Fundamentals of
Structural Dynamics
ZHIHUI ZHOU
Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
YING WEN
CHENZHI CAI
QINGYUAN ZENG
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Copyright © 2021 Central South University Press. Published by Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek
permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our
arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright
Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright
by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described
herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety
and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter
of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN: 978-0-12-823704-5
For Information on all Elsevier publications

visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals
Publisher: Glyn Jones

Editorial Project Manager: Naomi Robertson
Production Project Manager: Vijayaraj Purushothaman
Cover Designer: Mark Rogers
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India
Contents
About the authors ix

Preface xi
1. Overview of structural dynamics 1

1.1 Objective of structural dynamic analysis 1
1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics 2
1.3 Classification of vibrations 3
1.4 Vibration problems in engineering 6
1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures 7
1.5.1 Description of system configuration 7
1.5.2 Analysis of excitation 7
1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation 9
1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system 9
1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion 10
1.5.6 Vibration tests 10
Problems 10
References 11
2. Formulation of equations of motion of systems 13

2.1 System constraints 13
2.2 Representation of system configuration 18
2.3 Real displacements, possible displacements, and virtual displacements 22
2.4 Generalized force 25
2.5 Conservative force and potential energy 30
2.6 Direct equilibrium method 34
2.7 Principle of virtual displacements 35
2.8 Lagrange’s equation 39
2.9 Hamilton’s principle 45
2.10 Principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in
elastic system dynamics 50
2.10.1 Principle of virtual work and principle of total potential
energy with a stationary value in statics 50
2.10.2 Derivation of the principle of total potential energy
with a stationary value in elastic system dynamics 52
2.11 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices
and method of computer implementation in Matlab 59
v
vi Contents
2.11.1 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices 59

2.11.2 Method of computer implementation in Matlab for
assembling system matrices 70
References 75
Problems 75
3. Analysis of dynamic response of SDOF systems 79

3.1 Analysis of free vibrations 79
3.1.1 Undamped free vibrations 79
3.1.2 Damped free vibrations 81
3.1.3 Stability of motion 89
3.2 Response of SDOF systems to harmonic loads 93
3.3 Vibration caused by base motion and vibration isolation 105
3.3.1 Vibration caused by base motion 105
3.3.2 Vibration isolation 110
3.4 Introduction to damping theory 113
3.4.1 Viscous-damping theory 114
3.4.2 Hysteretic-damping theory 117
3.4.3 Frictional damping theory 118
3.5 Evaluation of viscous-damping ratio 118
3.5.1 Free-vibration decay method 119
3.5.2 Resonant amplification method 119
3.5.3 Half-power (band-width) method 120
3.5.4 Resonance energy loss per cycle method 124
3.6 Response of SDOF systems to periodic loads 126
3.7 Response of SDOF systems to impulsive loads 129
3.7.1 Sine-wave impulsive load 129
3.7.2 Rectangular impulsive load 134
3.7.3 Triangular impulsive load 136
3.7.4 Response ratios to different types of impulsive loads 138
3.7.5 Response spectra (shock spectra) 138
3.7.6 Approximate analysis of response to impulsive loads 141
3.8 Time-domain analysis of dynamic response to arbitrary
dynamic loads 143
3.9 Frequency-domain analysis of dynamic response to arbitrary
dynamic loads 146
3.9.1 Express the system response to periodic loads in complex form 147
3.9.2 Fourier integral method 150
References 153
Problems 153
Contents vii
4. Analysis of dynamic response of MDOF systems:

mode superposition method 157
4.1 Analysis of dynamic properties of multidegree-of-freedom systems 157
4.1.1 Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and principal vibration 157
4.1.2 Orthogonality of mode shapes 160
4.1.3 Repeated frequency case 163
4.2 Coupling characteristics and uncoupling procedure of equations
of MDOF systems 165
4.2.1 Coupling characteristics of equations of MDOF systems 165
4.2.2 Uncoupling procedure of equations of MDOF systems 167
4.3 Analysis of free vibration response of undamped systems 171
4.4 Response of undamped systems to arbitrary dynamic loads 175
4.5 Response of damped systems to arbitrary dynamic loads 177
References 184
Problems 185
5. Analysis of dynamic response of continuous systems:

straight beam 187
5.1 Differential equations of motion of undamped straight beam 188
5.2 Modal expansion of displacement and orthogonality of mode
shapes of straight beam 190
5.3 Free vibration analysis of undamped straight beam 195
5.4 Forced vibration analysis of undamped straight beam 201
5.5 Forced vibration analysis of damped straight beam 204
References 209
Problems 209
6. Approximate evaluation of natural frequencies and

mode shapes 211
6.1 Rayleigh energy method 211
6.2 RayleighRitz method 218
6.3 Matrix iteration method 222
6.3.1 Iteration procedure for fundamental frequency and mode 223
6.3.2 Iteration procedure for higher frequencies and modes 226
6.4 Subspace iteration method 229
6.5 Reduction of degrees of freedom in dynamic analysis 237
6.5.1 Preliminary comments 237
6.5.2 Kinematic constraints method 238
6.5.3 Static condensation method 239
viii Contents
6.5.4 RayleighRitz method 241

References 242
Problems 242
7. Step-by-step integration method 245

7.1 Basic idea of step-by-step integration method 245
7.2 Linear acceleration method 247
7.3 Wilson-θ method 252
7.4 Newmark method 255
7.5 Stability and accuracy of step-by-step integration method 257
Problems 266
References 266
Index 267
About the authors
Dr. Zhihui Zhou is currently an associate professor at the School of

Civil Engineering, Central South University (CSU), in China. He
received a PhD in Civil Engineering from CSU in 2007 under the super-
vision of Prof. Qingyuan Zeng. He was invited to study at the University
of Kentucky in 2014. Dr. Zhou’s research interests include train derail-
ment and dynamics of trainbridge (track) systems. He has been the prin-
cipal investigator of several research grants, including the research project
of National Natural Science Foundation of China (a study on the control
theory of running safety and comfort for high-speed trains on bridges), a
scientific research project of China’s Ministry of Railways (a study on
safety of running trains on large span cable-stayed bridges), special and
general projects of the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and
some other scientific research projects. Dr. Zhou has published over 30
journal papers as the first author, and two monographs entitled “Lectures
on dynamics of structures” and “Theory and application of train derail-
ment.” He won the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress of
Hunan Province for his study “Theory and application of train derailment”
in 2006.
Dr. Ying Wen was employed in the School of Civil Engineering, CSU,
in China, after obtaining his PhD in 2010, and he was promoted to asso-
ciate professor in 2012. He became a research associate in the Department
of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University in 2011. In 2014 Dr. Wen was invited to visit the Department
of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern
California, for a collaborative research on the problem of moving loads
on structures. After he returned to CSU in 2015, Dr. Wen was appointed
as the vice director of the Key Laboratory of Engineering Structures of
Heavy-haul Railway, Ministry of Education. Dr. Wen has interests in
fields of various structural dynamics and stability, especially nonlinear
mechanics of long-span bridges and their dynamic stability under moving
trains. Dr. Wen has published more than 20 journal papers, one of which
is listed as the Top 25 Hottest articles published in “Finite Elements in
Analysis & Design.” He has also published three Chinese monographs
about statics and dynamics of structures as a coauthor. Dr. Wen has
ix
x About the authors
received the awards of the Science and Technology Progress of Hunan

Province (2006) and Zhejiang Province (2011).
Dr. Chenzhi Cai received his BS degree in civil engineering and MS

degree in road and railway engineering from CSU, in China in 2011 and
2015, respectively. He graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University with a PhD in civil engineering in 2018 and joined the
Department of Bridge Engineering as well as the Wind Tunnel
Laboratory of CSU as an associate professor later that year. Dr. Cai’s main
research interests are the fields of noise and vibration control, train-bridge
interaction dynamics, and train-induced ground vibration isolation. He
has participated in several research projects funded by the Hong Kong
government and has also received research funding from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China and Hunan Provincial Natural
Science Foundation of China. Dr. Cai has published more than 20 papers
in international journals, and some of his work is under consideration for
acceptance by the UK CIBSE Guide.
Prof. Qingyuan Zeng is a distinguished scientist on bridge engineering at

Central South University, in China. He obtained his BS and MS degrees
from the Department of Civil Engineering, Nanchang University and
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, in 1950 and
1956, respectively. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy
of Engineering in 1999 for his great contributions to localglobal interac-
tive buckling behavior of long-span bridge structures, trainbridge inter-
action dynamics and the basic theory of train derailment. He presented
the principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in elastic sys-
tem dynamics and the “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system
matrices, which is a significant improvement of the classical theory of
structural dynamics and finite element method. Prof. Zeng has an interna-
tional reputation for his originality in the transverse vibration mechanism
and time-varying analysis method of the trainbridge system. He has
authored and coauthored more than 100 journal papers, three monographs,
and three textbooks. He received numerous awards, including the State
Science and Technology Progress Award, Distinguished Achievement
Award for Railway Science and Technology from Zhan Tianyou
Development Foundation, and Honorary Member Award from the China
Railway Society. He has supervised more than 16 MS students and 30 PhD
students in the past three decades.
Preface
Nowadays, the design of engineering structures, for example, long-span

bridges, high-rise buildings, stadiums, airport terminals, and offshore plat-
forms, seeks a large ratio of their load carrying capacity to self-weight to
achieve esthetic pleasure and economy. However, the type of these light-
weight and flexible structures will lead to a large deformation and exces-
sive vibrations under loading. In addition, these structures may suffer from
some extreme excitations, for instance, strong winds, seismic actions,
high-impact collisions, and impacts of water wave flow. Therefore, inves-
tigation of structural behaviors under dynamic loads is essential in order to
achieve a good performance of the structure when satisfying the require-
ment of designed service. The basic concept of structural dynamics is of
great help to engineers in understanding structural vibration and taking
appropriate measures.
This book introduces the fundamental concepts and basic principles of
the “dynamics of structures.” Although the book focuses on the linear
problem in structural dynamics, solutions for some nonlinear problems
have also been briefly introduced. It should be noted that random vibra-
tion is beyond the scope of this book and is not included here. The main
content of this book includes the overview of structural dynamics, the
formulation of equations of motion of systems, the analysis of dynamic
response of SDOF systems, the analysis of dynamic response of MDOF
and continuous systems, the mode superposition method, the approximate
evaluation of natural frequencies and mode shapes, and the step-by-step
integration method.
Three original contributions have been proposed in this book, namely,
the principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in elastic sys-
tem dynamics, the “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system
matrices, and the method of computer implementation in Matlab.
Moreover, this book introduces the fundamental concepts of structural
dynamics in a concise way rather than with a detailed description, which
is more efficient for abecedarians in understanding the basic concepts and
methods of vibration analysis.
Participants in the writing of this book include Zhihui Zhou, Ying
Wen, Chenzhi Cai, and Qingyuan Zeng from Central South University.
The specific division of the organization and writing of this book is as
xi
xii Preface
follows: Zhihui Zhou is responsible for the writing of Chapters 1 to 4;

Ying Wen has fulfilled Chapters 5 and 6; Chenzhi Cai has completed
Chapter 7, and Qingyuan Zeng supplied the original manuscript of the
book.
The authors wish to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to
Prof. Xiaojun Wei from Central South University, Prof. Tong Qiu from
The Pennsylvania State University, and PhD student Juanya Yu from
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for valuable advice in the
process of writing. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Lican Xie, Ms.
Manxuan Yang, Mr. Liang Zhang, Mr. Bao Zhang, Mr. Xuanyu Liao,
Mr. Chenlong Tang, Mr. Zhenhua Jian, Mr. Xiaojie Zhu, and other
graduate students from Central South University for their contributions in
different ways to the content of this book.
This book can be used as a textbook for both postgraduates and
undergraduates majoring in civil engineering, engineering mechanics,
mechanical engineering, and other related fields in general colleges and
universities. It can also be a reference for teachers, general students, and
short-term trainees in institutions of higher vocational education.
The authors cordially invite the audience of this book to contact with
us (Zhihui Zhou: zzhyy@csu.edu.cn) if you have any suggestions for
improvements and clarifications in the content organization, and even to
help identify errors. All the above efforts and comments are sincerely
acknowledged.
Zhihui Zhou
Ying Wen
Chenzhi Cai
Qingyuan Zeng
CHAPTER 1
Overview of structural dynamics

1.1 Objective of structural dynamic analysis
Dynamic analysis of the trainbridge system originated from the collapse of
the Chester Railway Bridge in the United Kingdom due to a train passing
over the bridge. In November 1940 the engineering community was aston-
ished by the dynamic instability of the Tacoma suspension bridge in the
United States under strong wind with a speed of 1720 m/s. A large
crowd of people participated in the opening ceremony of Wuhan Yangtze
River Bridge in 1957, resulting in continuous swaying of the newly opened
bridge. The swaying came to an end when the crowd went away at night.
In 2011 the administrator of the Shanghai Railway observed the excessive
transverse vibration of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge under the condi-
tion of a cargo train passing over the bridge. The transverse amplitude of
the oscillated bridge exceeded 9 mm, which led to concerns over the safety
of running trains on the bridge. Therefore the assessment of the safety and
comfort of running trains on this bridge was conducted [1,2].
Seismic activity has been relatively active in recent decades, for instance,
the Chilean earthquake in 1960, the Tangshan earthquake in China in
1976, the Mexico earthquake in 1985, the OsakaKobe earthquake in
Japan in 1995, the India earthquake in 2001, and the Sichuan earthquake
in China in 2008. In addition to serious disruption to the local economy,
these disasters threatened the safety of residents and their properties in the
concerned areas. Thus the aseismic design of infrastructures in seismically
active areas is necessary to reduce or avoid severe earthquake damage for
major projects. In addition, many airplane accidents have been caused by
the flutter of aircraft wings or the abnormal vibration of engines. In
mechanical engineering, vibrations may bring about negative effects on the
performance of some precision instruments, for instance, these vibrations
may increase abrasion and fatigue, or reduce machining accuracy and sur-
face finish. However, some manufacturing facilities, for example, transmis-
sion, screening, grinding, piling, and so on, as well as various generators and
clocks, benefit from the positive aspects of vibrations [3].
Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823704-5.00001-X Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics
The investigation of structural dynamics focuses on understanding the

basic mechanism of vibrations and presenting the corresponding proces-
sing methods. These methods can be adopted to eliminate of the negative
vibration effects of machines, prevent dynamic instability of bridges and
improve the tamping and compaction performances of the road construc-
tion machinery, and so on.
1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics

The main differences between statics and dynamics can be addressed in
the following aspects: (1) in dynamics, both the loads and responses of
structures are time-varying, which implies that, unlike static problems, the
solution of dynamics cannot be a single one. Therefore the dynamic anal-
ysis of structures presents a more complex and time-consuming process
when compared with the static analysis of structures; (2) acceleration is
significant in dynamics. The so-called inertial force produced by accelera-
tion acts in the opposite direction of the acceleration. As illustrated in
Fig. 1.1A, the internal moment and shear of the cantilever beam should
equilibrate the applied dynamic load, F(t), as well as the inertial force asso-
ciated with the acceleration. In Fig. 1.1B, the internal moment, shear, and
deflection of the cantilever beam under a static load F depend only on
the applied load itself. In general, once the inertial force accounts for a
relatively large proportion of the forces equilibrated by the elastic internal
force, the dynamic characteristics should be taken into account in the
structural analysis. When applied loads do not change significantly, the
dynamic responses are minor and the inertial forces can be neglected.
Thus the static analysis procedure could be applied at any desired instant
of time in these cases. If the exciting frequency is less than one third of
the first natural frequency of the structure, the analysis of the structure
Figure 1.1 Cantilever beam subjected to (A) dynamic load and (B) static load.
Overview of structural dynamics 3
could be treated as a static problem (a better understating of this concept

can be achieved by means of Fig. 3.14); (3) damping is also an indispens-
able factor in dynamic problems. Energy will be dissipated in the vibration
of structures. Structural damping is frequently ignored in the analysis of
the natural dynamic properties and the dynamic response over a relatively
short duration (such as the action of impulsive loads). However, structural
damping must be taken into account when large damping exists or vibra-
tion lasts a long period, as well as in the analysis of the vibration in the
resonance region.
1.3 Classification of vibrations

1. The vibrations could be classified as either deterministic or random
vibrations according to the deterministic or random characteristics of
the dynamic responses.
a. Deterministic vibration: the structural responses are deterministic
functions of time due to the determined load and system.
b. Random vibration: the structural responses are random due to the
uncertainty of load or system. However, the responses usually comply
with certain statistical rules and can be analyzed with statistical pro-
bability methods. For instance, the vibrations of aircraft owing
to aerodynamic noise, the vibrations of the traintrackbridge system
caused by track irregularity, etc., are all regarded as random vibrations.
2. The vibrations could be classified as either free vibrations, forced vibra-
tions, self-excited vibrations, or parametric vibrations.
a. Free vibration: external perturbation makes the system deviate
from the initial equilibrium position or have initial velocity. When
the perturbation is rapidly removed, the system will vibrate due to
initial displacement or velocity, which is called free vibration.
b. Forced vibration: the vibration of the structure is caused by a contin-
uously applied load, which is called forced vibration. The response
of a forced vibration consists of two components. One is the tran-
sient response related to the initial conditions and the other is the
steady-state response with the same frequency as the applied load.
Since transient vibrations decay rapidly due to the damping effect,
forced vibrations are often referred to as steady-state vibration.
c. Self-excited vibration: the vibration is excited and controlled by
the system motion itself, which is called self-excited vibration.
In the analysis of self-excited vibrations, the components of the
system should be determined first. Then, the interaction among

these components should be fully understood, as well as the pro-
cess of the input and dissipation of system energy. In self-excited
vibrations, energy is obtained from the periodic vibration of a part
of the system. The excitation is a function of the displacement,
velocity and acceleration of the system. It is common to encounter
self-excited vibration phenomena in nature, engineering, and daily
life, for example, the piston motion of engines, the working prin-
ciple of clocks, the wind-induced motion of the Tacoma Bridge,
and the vibration of leaves in the breeze.
Through the observation of the swing of leaves under the excita-
tion of the wind, it can be noted that the wind angle of leaves stand-
ing against the wind will be changed due to bending of branches.
Therefore part of the air flow along the leaves and the wind pressure
on the leaves would be reduced. However, the elastic resistance of
the branch forces the leaves to return to their initial positions. Such a
process is repeated over and over. It can be concluded from the
above description that the external wind itself does not vary periodi-
cally, while the wind excitation on the leaves is periodic. This is
because the motion of the leaves controls the wind actions on the
leaves. This type of vibration is referred to as self-excited vibration.
d. Parametric vibration: system parameters change with a certain rule
due to the action of applied load, and the vibration is excited by the
changing system parameters, which is called parametric vibration.
The motion of a single pendulum with the time-varying length is
a typical example, as illustrated in Fig. 1.2A. Considering a small-
amplitude motion of a single pendulum,
its equation of motion
could be derived as ϕ€ 1 2 _l=l ϕ_ 1 g=l ϕ 5 0 (ϕ is the rotation of
the pendulum; l is the time-varying length of the pendulum; g is
the acceleration of gravity; the detailed derivation can be found in
Example 2.6). It can be observed from the equation that the system
parameters vary with the length of the pendulum l. The external
force is not present in the load term of the equation of motion.
Another typical example is the transverse vibration of a straight bar
to a periodic axial force, as shown in Fig. 1.2B. The periodic axial
force results in periodic variation of parameters in the equation of
transverse bending (detailed information can be found in Chapter 17
of Ref. [4]), which leads to the vibration of the straight bar in the
transverse direction. Once the frequency of the applied force ω, and
the natural frequency associated with transverse bending of the bar,

ω, satisfy the relation of ω 5 2ω=K, K 5 1; 2; ?, the transverse
amplitude of the bar would become larger and larger and instability
would occur eventually. That is parametric resonance of the bar in
the transverse direction due to the periodic excitation in the direc-
tion of the bar axis, as shown in Fig. 1.2C.
3. According to the linear or nonlinear differential equations of a system,
the vibrations can be categorized into linear vibrations and nonlinear
vibrations:
a. Linear vibration: the inertial force, damping force, and elastic resis-
tance of the system are linearly related to the acceleration, velocity,
and displacement, respectively. The vibration of a system is governed
by a linear differential equation. Instead of second- and higher-order
terms, only the first-order terms with respect to acceleration, veloc-
ity, and displacement are present in the differential equation. This
book focuses on the investigation of the linear vibration.
b. Nonlinear vibration: in contrast to the linear vibration, the inertial
force, damping force, or elastic resistance of the system are nonlinear
with respect to acceleration, velocity, or displacement, respectively,
and the corresponding vibration can only be governed by nonlinear
differential equations. For instance, both the collapse of infrastructure
due to earthquakes and large amplitude vibration of flexible struc-
tures due to strong winds are examples of the nonlinear vibration.
Figure 1.2 Examples and response characteristics of parametric vibration: (A) motion
of a single pendulum with time-varying length; (B) transverse instability of a straight
bar; (C) vibration response due to parametric vibration.
1.4 Vibration problems in engineering

In the analysis of vibration, the investigated object (the engineering struc-
ture) is generally referred to as the vibrating system, and can be described
by the mass M, stiffness K, and damping C. The external loads that act on
a system or the factors that lead to the vibration of a system are called the
excitation or input. The dynamic responses of the system subjected to
such an excitation or input, for instance, accelerations, velocities, and dis-
placements, are regarded as the responses or output. The excitation (input)
is connected with the responses (output) by means of the properties of the
vibration system, as shown in Fig. 1.3.
The investigation of system vibration boils down to the analysis of the
relationships among the system, input, and output. Theoretically, once two
of these three factors are determined, the remaining one can be obtained.
Therefore vibration problems in engineering can be classified into the follow-
ing four types:
1. Response analysis: based on the given physical properties of the structural
system and the applied loads, the responses, including the acceleration,
velocity, and displacement, etc., are solved. Response analysis provides
basic information for analyzing the strength, stiffness, and vibration state
of a system. This book mainly focuses on the response analysis.
2. Environment prediction: based on the given properties and responses of
the structural system, the input is to be determined, and the characteristics
of the environment where the system is located may be identified.
3. System identification: the input and output are known, that is, the
dynamic loads and responses of the system are known. Therefore the
properties of the system can be obtained by using the system identifi-
cation method. The identified parameters include both physical prop-
erties (mass, stiffness, damping, etc.) and modal parameters (natural
frequencies and mode shapes).
4. System design: in many cases of engineering applications, the proper-
ties of the system can be designed based on the given input and
required criteria of responses. In general, the system design depends on
the response analysis. System design and response analysis are often
conducted alternately in practical engineering.
Figure 1.3 Three factors representing system vibration.

1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures

1.5.1 Description of system configuration
Evaluation of the system responses of is a significant objective in structural
dynamics. The prerequisite for finding the solutions of the structural
responses is to formulate the dynamic equilibrium equation, that is, the equa-
tion of motion of the system, by considering the inertial, damping, elastic,
and external forces. The inertial, damping, and elastic forces are directly
related to the displacements, velocities, and accelerations of the system, as
well as its physical properties. Therefore it is necessary to describe the config-
uration of the system at any instant of time. Generally, a vibration configura-
tion is determined from the positions of all particles of the system. Practical
structures are generally continuous systems, and infinite displacement variables
are required to represent their vibration configuration theoretically. For
example, the position coordinates v k , k 5 1; 2; ?, of all continuous particles
distributing along the length of the beam should be obtained for the sake of
accurate description of the vibration of the simply supported beam in the
vertical plane, as shown in Fig. 1.4A. However, it is difficult and unnecessary
to do so in vibration analysis of engineering structures. An approximate esti-
mate of structural configuration can often satisfy the requirement of accuracy
in practical engineering. It is both efficient and possible to discretize a simply
supported beam into finite elements and use the displacements of nodes to
describe the configuration of the beam, as shown in Fig. 1.4B. The selection
of the appropriate coordinates that represent vibration configuration of struc-
tures is the preliminary and most important step for the modeling of practical
structures, which is associated with computational effort and accuracy.
1.5.2 Analysis of excitation

Excitation is defined as the external actions which induce structural vibra-
tions. The excitation of structural vibration is complex and affected by
many random factors. For instance, the dynamic actions of a train running
Figure 1.4 Configuration of a simply supported beam: (A) accurate description;

(B) approximate description using the finite element method.
on a bridge include the wheelrail contact forces caused by the hunting

movement of wheelsets, eccentric loads of vehicles, and additional forces
generated by track irregularities. It is difficult to identify these excitations
with specific expressions quantitatively; however, these excitations satisfy
certain statistical rules. Although seismic acceleration waves can be adopted
for the input of earthquake actions on structures, there are no uniform
mathematical models for seismic acceleration waves for different regions,
even for earthquakes of the same magnitude. The seismic actions on the
structure are random, as well as the wind actions. These dynamic loads are
called random loads.
Some special excitations are present in engineering, which can be
described with sufficient precision by a specific time-domain function.
Harmonic excitation caused by the eccentric rotor with a constant angular
speed is a typical example of this.
According to whether excitations can be described by a deterministic
mathematical model or not, excitations can be classified into two types,
namely, random dynamic load and prescribed dynamic load.
1. Random dynamic load: a time-varying random dynamic load cannot
be represented deterministically. The differences of loads in each
experiment are obvious. However, probability theory can be adopted
to describe the statistical characteristics of these loads.
2. Prescribed dynamic load: the time variation of a deterministic dynamic
load is specified. The obtained results of these kinds of loads in different
experiments are nearly identical when considering the experimental
error. Fig. 1.5 shows some typical prescribed dynamic loads.
Figure 1.5 Typical prescribed dynamic loads: (A) harmonic load; (B) arbitrary periodic
load; (C) impulsive load; (D) arbitrary nonperiodic load.
Prescribed dynamic loads include both periodic and nonperiodic loads.

Periodic loads can be categorized into simple harmonic loads (Fig. 1.5A)
and arbitrary periodic loads (Fig. 1.5B). Nonperiodic loads can be catego-
rized as impulsive loads with an extremely short duration (such as a shock
wave and explosion wave, as shown in Fig. 1.5C), and arbitrary nonperio-
dic loads with a specified duration (such as measured seismic excitations,
as illustrated in Fig. 1.5D, which is regarded as a prescribed dynamic load
in the analysis of deterministic vibrations).
1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation

The mechanism of energy dissipation is complex and not fully under-
stood. Energy dissipation in structural vibration is related to the damping
force. The damping force is mainly caused by the internal friction due to
the deforming of solid material, the friction at connection points of struc-
tures (such as the friction at bolt joints of steel structures), the opening
and closing of microcracks in concrete, and the friction due to external
media around structures (such as the effects of air and fluids), etc. In real-
ity, it is difficult to simulate damping accurately due to the combined
effects of several factors. If only one kind of damping dominates the
effects, it would be possible to find a reasonable model for the damping
force. For instance, viscous damping force is proportional to the magni-
tude of velocity, that is, F vd 5 c_v , and it opposes the velocity. Detailed
information about the damping will be given in Section 3.4.
1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system

An important task for structural dynamics is to obtain the displacements
that vary with time or other responses to prescribed loads. Approximate
methods (such as the finite element method) considering a certain number
of degrees of freedom can generally meet the accuracy requirements for
most structures. Thus the problem boils down to solving the time history
of these selected displacement variables. The mathematical expression of
dynamic displacements is referred to as the equation of motion of a struc-
tural system. It is also known as the dynamic equilibrium equation once
the inertial force is introduced. By solving the equation, the displacements
and other responses can be obtained. The vibration characteristics
of a multidegree-of-freedom system can be expressed by the following
equation:
M q€ 1 C q_ 1 Kq 5 Q (1.1)
where q is the generalized displacement vector; q_ is the generalized veloc-

ity vector; q€ is the generalized acceleration vector; M is the mass matrix;
C is the damping matrix; K is the stiffness matrix; and Q is the general-
ized force vector.
1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion

The theory for the linear equation of motion of a system is comparatively
mature. It can be categorized into the following two types:
1. Solution for linear equation of motion with constant coefficients: the
main methods include numerical integration method (such as the
Euler method or RungeKutta method), variational method, mode-
superposition method, and weighted residual method.
2. Solution for linear equation of motion with variable coefficients: this
is mainly tackled by the variational method, step-by-step integration
method, and weighted residual method.
There is no general method available for solving a nonlinear equation of
motion yet. The small parameter method, variational method, and weighted
residual method are commonly applied to solve a nonlinear equation of
motion. With the rapid development of computers, the step-by-step integra-
tion method has become the dominant algorithm.
1.5.6 Vibration tests

The main purpose of vibration tests is to validate the theoretical results,
modify the theoretical model, and obtain the parameters required by the
theoretical analysis. The natural frequencies, mode shapes, damping ratio,
and seismic acceleration wave are among the test items. These parameters
are the basis of the analysis of structural dynamics.
Problems
1.1 What are the main differences between the dynamic and static analy-
sis of structures?
1.2 What are the main differences between prescribed and random
dynamic loads? How should one express these two kinds of loads in
mathematics?
1.3 What are the common problems related to engineering vibration
analysis and what relationships do they have?
1.4 According to the characteristics of parametric vibration and self-excited
vibration, which category does the motion of swing belong to?
References
[1] Zeng Q, Guo X. Theory of vibration analysis of train-bridge time-varying system and
its application. Beijing: China Railway Press; 1999.
[2] Zeng Q, Xiang J, Zhou Z, Lou P. Theory of train derailment analysis and its applica-
tion. Changsha: Central South University Press; 2006.
[3] Zhou Z, Wen Y, Zeng Q. Lectures on dynamics of structures. 2nd ed. Beijing: China
Communications Press Co., Ltd; 2017.
[4] Clough RW, Penzien J. Dynamics of structures. 3rd ed. Berkeley, CA: Computers &
Structures, Inc; 2003.
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CHAPTER 2
Formulation of equations of
motion of systems
The preliminary step for estimating structural response is to formulate the
equation of motion of a structural system. This chapter focuses on the
basic concepts of structural dynamics and several methods for formulating
the equation of motion. These methods include (1) the direct equilibrium
method, (2) the principle of virtual displacements, (3) Lagrange’s equa-
tions, (4) Hamilton’s principle, (5) the principle of total potential energy
with a stationary value in elastic system dynamics, and (6) the “set-in-
right-position” rule for assembling system matrices and the method of
computer implementation in Matlab.
First, the concept of system constraint and the representation of the
configuration of a system will be introduced in this chapter. Then, the prin-
ciples and applications of the aforementioned six methods will be discussed.
2.1 System constraints

The earth is often selected as the reference frame in the vibration analysis of
systems. The chosen Cartesian coordinate system is fixed on the Earth, as
illustrated in Fig. 2.1. This kind of coordinate system is called a basic coor-
dinate system. The notation O represents the origin of the coordinate
Figure 2.1 Position of a particle in the basic coordinate system.
Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823704-5.00002-1 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 13
system. Bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures are considered to be

fixed on the earth and are incapable of moving freely. The motions of these
structures should satisfy external constraint conditions. Such kinds of systems
are referred to as constrained systems of particles. In contrast, aircrafts, birds,
etc., can move freely in all directions relative to the earth (i.e., the basic
coordinate system). This kind of system is called a free system of particles.
Each particle, which satisfies the requirements of internal constraints, can
move freely in all directions relative to the basic coordinate system.
A constraint could be defined as a geometric or kinematic restriction
imposed on the position and/or velocity of a particle. It is commonly
expressed by a constraint equation. The boundary conditions of a struc-
ture are typical examples of constraint equations. The following is a brief
introduction of constraint classifications.
1. Constraints can be categorized as either geometric or kinematic constraints
according to the characteristics of state variables in constraint equations.
Geometric constraint: Only the positions of the particles of a system
are restricted. For example, the coordinates of the particle m, x, y, z, as
shown in Fig. 2.2, should satisfy the following equation
x2 1 y2 1 z2 5 l 2 (2.1)
where l represents the length of the rigid rod. Eq. (2.1) is known as the
geometric constraint equation. Therefore the position coordinates of the
particle m at any instant of time t, xðtÞ, yðtÞ, zðtÞ, are not independent.
Only two of them are independent.
Kinematic constraint: Both the position and velocity of the particles of
a system are restricted. A cylinder moves along the positive direction
of the x axis, as shown in Fig. 2.3. It should be noted that the position of
the center of the cylinder C must satisfy the following relationship
zC 5 R (2.2)
Figure 2.2 Particle constrained by a rigid rod.

Formulation of equations of motion of systems 15
Figure 2.3 Cylinder rolling horizontally.
Figure 2.4 Motion of an ice skate in a plane.
where zC is the position of the center of cylinder along the z axis, and R
is the radius of the cylinder.
Eq. (2.2) is a geometric constraint equation. Once the cylinder can
only roll without sliding, the velocity of the contact point D on the
ground shall equal zero, which could be expressed as
x_ C 2 Rϕ_ 5 0 (2.3)
where x_ C is the velocity of the center of cylinder along the x axis, and ϕ_
is the angular velocity of the cylinder.
Eq. (2.3) is a kinematic constraint equation. Eq. (2.3) could be trans-
formed into xC 5 Rϕ 1 c (c is an integral constant; ϕ is the rotation of the
cylinder) by integration, which is a geometric constraint equation. The
motion of an ice skate on the ground can be simplified to the motion of
the rod AB in a plane, as shown in Fig. 2.4. The velocity vC of the center
of mass C is always along the direction of rod AB. Therefore the velocity
components x_ C and y_ C along the direction of the x and y axes should
satisfy the following relationship

y_ C
5 tan θ or x_ C sin θ 2 y_ C cos θ 5 0
x_ C
where θ is the rotation angle of rod AB measured from the x axis.
The above equation is a kinematic constraint equation. Due to the
angle θ varying with the motion of the system, the above equation cannot
be integrated to obtain a geometric constraint relation. More knowledge
about transforming kinematic constraint equations into geometric con-
straint equations can be found in Ref. [1].
2. Constraints can be categorized as either steady or unsteady constraints
according to whether the time variable is explicitly present in the con-
straint equation or not.
Steady constraint: Time variable t is not present in the constraint equa-
tion. Eqs. (2.1), (2.2), and (2.3) belong to the steady constraints.
Consider a system of l particles, the steady constraint equation could
be expressed as follows:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ;_r 1 ; ?; r_l Þ 5 0
(2.4)
or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;_x1 ;_y1 ;_z1 ;?;_xl ;_yl ;_zl Þ 5 0
where r k is the position vector of the kth particle, r_k is the velocity vector
of the kth particle, xk ; yk ; zk are the coordinate components of the kth
particle in the basic coordinate system, and x_ k ; y_ k ; z_ k are the velocity com-
ponents of the kth particle in the basic coordinate system, where
k 5 1; 2; ?; l.
Unsteady constraint: Time t is an explicit variable in constraint
equations. For example, Fig. 2.5 shows a planar pendulum dangled at
point j. The point j moves in terms of sine function y0 5 a sin ωt along
Figure 2.5 Motion of a planar pendulum.

the direction of the y axis. The constraint equation of particle m can be

given as follows:
x2 1 ðy2a sin ωtÞ2 5 l 2 (2.5)
The general equation of an unsteady constraint can be expressed as:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ; r_1 ; ?; r_l ; tÞ 5 0
(2.6)
or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;_x1 ;_y1 ;_z1 ;?;_xl ;_yl ;_zl ;tÞ 5 0
3. Constraints can also be categorized as either holonomic or nonholo-
nomic constraints, according to whether the terms of velocity are present
in constraint equations or not.
Holonomic constraints: Geometric constraints and integrable kine-
matic constraints are called holonomic constraints. Holonomic constraints
only depend on the coordinates and time t, and holonomic constraint
equations exclude the terms of velocity. The general expression could be
given as follows:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ; tÞ 5 0 or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;tÞ 5 0 (2.7)
Nonholonomic constraints: Kinematic constraints which cannot be inte-
grated to get geometric constraints are called nonholonomic constraints.
Nonholonomic constraint equations contain derivatives of coordinates with
respect to time t. The general expression could be given as follows:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ; r_1 ; ?; r_l ; tÞ 5 0
(2.8)
or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;_x1 ;_y1 ;_z1 ;?;_xl ;_yl ;_zl ;tÞ 5 0
As discussed above, the constraints of the rolling cylinder, as shown in
Fig. 2.3, can be considered to be holonomic. The constraint of the ice
skate, as shown in Fig. 2.4, is nonholonomic due to its unintegrable kine-
matic constraint equation. For given constraint equations which contain
the terms of velocity, integration transformations should be used to obtain
constraint equations in the form of Eq. (2.7). Once these transformations
are available, the corresponding constrains are holonomic. Otherwise, the
constrains are nonholonomic.
Once all the constrains of a system are holonomic, the system can be
defined as a holonomic system. Otherwise, the system is a nonholonomic
system. The subsequent chapters of the book focus on holonomic systems.
Detailed information about nonholonomic systems could be found in
Ref. [1].
2.2 Representation of system configuration

The independent variables that can completely specify the configuration
of a system are defined as the generalized coordinates. For the case of a
holonomic system, the number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the sys-
tem equals that of generalized coordinates, and n is used to represent the
number of DOFs. However, the number of DOFs does not necessarily
equal that of generalized coordinates, which will occur in the case of a
nonholonomic system. More information can be found in Ref. [1].
Assuming a free system consisting of l particles (the system is assumed to
contain l particles in this book, except that specific notes are addressed),
the number of independent coordinates to determine the system configu-
ration is therefore required to be 3l. Due to some constraints in the con-
strained system of particles, the coordinates of particles in such a system
are not independent and should satisfy some constraint conditions.
A constrained system of particles is set to be a holonomic system with
s holonomic constraints. Then, 3l coordinates of the system should satisfy
s constraint equations. This means that only ð3l 2 sÞ coordinates are inde-
pendent. The remaining s coordinates are given as functions of these inde-
pendent coordinates. Thus ð3l 2 sÞ independent coordinates are sufficient
to determine the system configuration, that is, n 5 3l 2 s.
For example, a free spatial particle with three DOFs is restricted to be
in a plane, then the number of DOFs of the particle decreases from three
to two. Once the particle is connected to a fixed point in the plane
through a rigid rod, the particle would only have one DOF. Another
example is the oscillation of a double pendulum, as shown in Fig. 2.6.
Figure 2.6 Motion of a double pendulum.

The coordinates x1 , y1 of the mass m1 and x2 , y2 of the mass m2 should

satisfy the following constraint equations
x21 1 y21 5 l12 ; ðx2 2x1 Þ2 1 ðy2 2y1 Þ2 5 l 22
In such a circumstance, only two independent coordinates are present
in the system. This indicates that the system is a 2-DOF system.
Generally, it is not convenient to determine independent coordinates
in the form of Cartesian coordinates. The uniqueness of independent
coordinates may sometimes be damaged. For the example shown in
Fig. 2.6, the independent coordinates x1 , x2 (or y1 , y2 ) correspond to the
above or below positions (left or right positions). It is obvious that x1 and
x2 (y1 and y2 ) are not appropriate for independent coordinates anymore.
It is convenient to specify the system configuration completely by using
the rotation angles ϕ1 and ϕ2 as the independent coordinates. The
Cartesian coordinates of each mass can be expressed as continuous, single-
valued functions of ϕ1 and ϕ2 .
Actually, there are many options for the generalized coordinates for a
given system. As shown in Fig. 2.7, the deflection of the simply supported
beam could be expressed in the form of Fourier series by considering
Figure 2.7 Description of the configuration of a simply supported beam.

the boundary constraints

X
N
iπx
vðx; tÞ 5 ai ðtÞ sin (2.9)
i51
L
where sinðiπx=LÞ represents the ith shape function which is a prescribed

function satisfying the boundary conditions, L represents the length of the
beam, and ai ðtÞ represents the ith generalized coordinate which is an
unknown quantity. For dynamic problems, ai ðtÞ is a function of time t.
Therefore the deflection of the beam can be determined by using a set of
generalized coordinates of ai ðtÞ, i 5 1; 2; ?; N, and the number of DOFs
of the system is infinite. Only the first few terms of the series are required
to be retained in the actual analysis, which is similar to the truncation in a
mathematical analysis. By considering the first n terms of the series, the
deflection of the simply supported beam could be approximated as
follows:
X
n
iπx
vðx; tÞ 5 ai ðtÞ sin (2.10)
i51
L
Therefore a simply supported beam of infinite DOFs is simplified to a

finite-DOF system. The generalized coordinates describe the amplitudes
of shape functions. The generalized coordinates will have the dimension
of the displacement if the shape functions are related to the displacement.
However, the generalized coordinates are often not real physical quanti-
ties, and only the superposition of n terms of series represents the actual
deflection. This kind of method, which is used to express system configu-
ration, is called the generalized coordinate method.
In addition, the finite element method (FEM) may be considered to
be an application of the generalized coordinate method, which has been
widely used in structural analysis. The amplitudes of shape functions men-
tioned above are defined as the generalized coordinates, which are not
physically meaningful. Meanwhile, the shape functions are defined
throughout the entire structure. It is difficult to find a set of appropriate
shape functions for complex structures. However, the variables adopted as
generalized coordinates in the FEM have clear physical meanings. The
shape functions in FEM can be expressed indirectly by means of the local
functions throughout segments so that expressions are relatively simple.
The simply supported beam as shown in Fig. 2.8A is used as an example
to introduce the above method briefly.
Figure 2.8 Discretization of a simply supported beam with FEM: (A) vertical transla-
tions and rotations of nodes; (B) shape function ϕ1 ðxÞ; (C) shape function ϕ2 ðxÞ;
(D) shape function ϕ3 ðxÞ.
The simply supported beam may be divided into three elements

with
four nodes. The vertical translation v and rotation v 0 v0 5 @v=@x of all
nodes, as shown in Fig. 2.8A, have been selected as the generalized coor-
dinates. Taking account of the boundary conditions of nodes 1 and 4, the
finite element model has six displacement coordinates, namely, v1 0 , v2 , v2 0 ,
v3 , v3 0 , and v4 0 . The displacement coordinates of each node only affect the
displacements of the adjacent elements. Fig. 2.8B, C, and D shows the
shape functions ϕ1 ðxÞ, ϕ2 ðxÞ, and ϕ3 ðxÞ corresponding to node displace-
ments v1 0 , v2 , and v2 0 , respectively, and other shape functions can be
obtained similarly. Referring to Eq. (2.10), the configuration of the simply
supported beam could be expressed in terms of six displacement coordi-
nates and the corresponding shape functions as follows:
vðx; tÞ 5 v1 0 ϕ1 ðxÞ 1 v2 ϕ2 ðxÞ 1 v2 0 ϕ3 ðxÞ 1 v3 ϕ4 ðxÞ 1 v3 0 ϕ5 ðxÞ 1 v4 0 ϕ6 ðxÞ
Therefore a simply supported beam of infinite DOFs is simplified to a
6-DOF system by FEM.
The shape function ϕi ðxÞ in the present section is closely related to the
element shape function Ni , which will be introduced in Section 2.11.
However, there are some differences between them. Here, ϕi ðxÞ indicates a
function of the entire region of the structure, and Ni only represents a func-
tion of the small region of an element. The ϕi ðxÞ can be determined by
means of Ni . Therefore the shape functions of the structure can be expressed
conveniently through this way. Generally, the coordinates used in the gener-
alized coordinate method are the amplitudes of shape functions, which are
not physically meaningful displacements. However, the displacement coordi-
nates adopted by the FEM have physical meaning. These are the advantages
of the FEM over the generalized coordinate method [2].
2.3 Real displacements, possible displacements, and virtual

displacements
A constrained system with l particles starts to move under specified initial
conditions. The position vectors of particles r k , k 5 1; 2; ?; l, should sat-
isfy initial conditions, dynamic differential equations, and all the constraint
equations. This kind of motion is called real motion which occurs actu-
ally. The displacements of particles in the real motion are referred to as
real displacements. The constraint equations of a holonomic system could
be given as follows:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ; tÞ 5 0
(2.11)
or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;x2 ;y2 ;z2 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;tÞ 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s
For simplicity, x1 ; y1 ; z1 ; x2 ; y2 ; z2 ; ?; xl ; yl ; zl are replaced by
x1 ; x2 ; x3 ; x4 ; x5 ; x6 ; ?; x3l22 ; x3l21 ; x3l , respectively, and the second
expression of Eq. (2.11) is rewritten as
fc ðx1 ; x2 ; ?; x3l ; t Þ 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s (2.12)
The time t is assumed to vary from t to t 1 dt. The small displacements
of particles could be expressed as dr k , k 5 1; 2; ?; l, (dxi ; i 5 1; 2; ?; 3l,
in the Cartesian coordinate system). When the displacements occur, the
system should still satisfy Eq. (2.12), that is,
fc ðx1 1 dx1 ; x2 1 dx2 ; ?; x3l 1 dx3l ; t 1 dt Þ 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s
By expanding with Taylor series and ignoring the second and higher
order terms, the above equations become
fc ðx1 1 dx1 ; x2 1 dx2 ; ?; x3l 1 dx3l ; t 1 dtÞ
@fc @fc @fc @fc
5 fc ðx1 ; x2 ; ?; x3l ; tÞ 1 dx1 1 dx2 1 ? 1 dx3l 1 dt 5 0
@x1 @x2 @x3l @t
c 5 1; 2; ?; s
Considering Eq. (2.12), one obtains

@fc @fc @fc @fc
dx1 1 dx2 1 ? 1 dx3l 1 dt 5 0
@x1 @x2 @x3l @t
or after simplifying
X
3l
@fc @fc
dxi 1 dt 5 0 ; c 5 1; 2; ?; s (2.13)
i51
@xi @t
For the case of steady constraints, fc does not contain time t explicitly.
Thus Eq. (2.13) becomes
X
3l
@fc
dxi 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s (2.14)
i51
@xi
Infinitesimal displacements that only satisfy Eq. (2.13) or Eq. (2.14) are
called possible displacements. The possible displacements are not unique
since they are only required to meet constraint equations rather than both
initial conditions and equations of motion. It is obvious that the real dis-
placements satisfy constraint equations. Therefore real displacements
belong to one case of possible displacements. However, the real displace-
ments also need to satisfy initial conditions and equations of motion. Thus
there is only one solution for real displacements.
As shown in Fig. 2.9, the particle m is constrained to a spherical surface
with constant radius R. The constraint equation could be given as:
x2 1 y2 1 z2 5 R2 . At the instant of time t 1 dt, the particle m should satisfy
xdx 1 ydy 1 zdz 5 0, or rUdr 5 0.
There are infinite solutions for dr or dx, dy, and dz, which satisfy the
above constraint equation. The solutions are arbitrary vectors dr which
are located in the tangent plane at point M. Only five vectors in Fig. 2.9
are drawn for examples, and these vectors are possible displacements.
The real displacement of particle m should satisfy initial conditions, equa-
tions of motion, and constraint equations simultaneously. Thus the real
Figure 2.9 Schematic diagram of real and possible displacements.

displacement, which is unique, is located at the tangent plane at point M

and along the actual trajectory. The solid line in Fig. 2.9 illustrates the
real displacement. Obviously, it is only one case of possible displacements.
A virtual displacement is an arbitrary, infinitesimal, imaginary change
of configuration, which is consistent with all displacement constraints
on the system. The virtual displacements could be expressed in the form
of δr k , k 5 1; 2; ?; l, or δxi , i 5 1; 2; ?; 3l. According to the concepts of
virtual displacement and DOF, the number of independent virtual displa-
cements equals that of DOFs, as well as that of the independent equations
of motion of the system. The system should also satisfy Eq. (2.12) at some
time t with the virtual displacement δxi , i 5 1; 2; ?; 3l, that is,
fc ðx1 1 δx1 ; x2 1 δx2 ; ?; x3l 1 δx3l ; tÞ 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s

By expanding with Taylor series and ignoring the second and higher
order terms, the above equation becomes
fc ðx1 1 δx1 ; x2 1 δx2 ; ?; x3l 1 δx3l ; tÞ
@fc @fc @fc
5 fc ðx1 ; x2 ; ?; x3l ; tÞ 1 δx1 1 δx2 1 ? 1 δx3l 5 0
@x1 @x2 @x3l
Considering Eq. (2.12), one obtains

@fc @fc @fc
δx1 1 δx2 1 ? 1 δx3l 5 0
@x1 @x2 @x3l
or after simplifying
X
3l
@fc
δxi 5 0; c 5 1; 2; ?; s (2.15)
i51
@xi
By comparing Eq. (2.15) with Eq. (2.13), the equations governing δxi
and dxi are different. δxi is time-independent, whereas dxi depends on
time. The constraints are time-varying in the circumstance of unsteady
constraints. For this case, all the time-varying constraints can be “frozen”
at some time, and the displacements compatible with the frozen con-
straints are the virtual displacements. Therefore the virtual displacements
may not be possible displacements or real displacements.
As shown in Fig. 2.10A, the curvilinear motion of particle m in a plane
is given. Its constraint would be steady if the plane is fixed. The real dis-
placement of particle m is in the plane along the tangent line of point M,
and its direction is determined, as illustrated in notation dr via the solid line.
Figure 2.10 Schematic diagram of real, possible, and virtual displacements: (A) steady
constraint; (B) unsteady constraint.
The possible displacements with arbitrary directions through point M are

also located in the plane, as illustrated with notation dr via the dashed lines.
Similarly, the virtual displacement δr with arbitrary directions through point
M, is also located in the plane, as illustrated via the dashed lines. It should be
noted that both the numbers of possible displacements and virtual displace-
ments are infinite.
The constraint will become unsteady once the plane moves upward at
a constant speed v, as illustrated in Fig. 2.10B. Then, the real displacement
of the particle m is the vector represented by the solid line from the point
M in the plane I at the time t to the point M 0 in the plane II at the time
t 1 dt. The possible displacements of the particle m are the arbitrary vec-
tors from point M in the plane I at the time t to any point in plane II at
the time t 1 dt (see dashed lines with notation dr). However, the virtual
displacements are arbitrary vectors staring from point M in plane I at the
instant of time t (dashed lines with notation δr).
2.4 Generalized force

Consider a system of particles having holonomic constraints. The numbers of
particles and holonomic constraints are denoted as l and s, respectively.
Therefore the number of DOFs of the system equals n 5 3l 2 s. The position
of the system could be determined from n generalized coordinates, denoted
by q1 ; q2 ; ?; qn . The spatial positions of the particle mk can be expressed as
the function of the generalized coordinates and the time t as follows:
r k 5 r k ðq1 ; q2 ; ?; qn ; tÞ (2.16)
Generalized coordinates that are adopted to describe the position of

the system are independent. The variation of each generalized coordinate
is identical to an independent virtual displacement of the system. Thus the
virtual displacement of each particle can be described by the function
of a set of independent virtual displacements, δq1 ; δq2 ; ?; δqn . The time t
corresponding to virtual displacements is stationary. Taking variation of
Eq. (2.16) leads to
X
n
@r k
δr k 5 δqi (2.17)
i51
@qi
Suppose that a force F k acts on particle mk . The virtual work done by

F k under δr k can be given by
δWk 5 F k Uδr k (2.18)
Substituting Eq. (2.17) into Eq. (2.18) yields
X
n
@r k X
n
@r k
δWk 5 F k U δqi 5 F kU δqi (2.19)
i51
@qi i51
@qi
Therefore the virtual work of all particles could be given as follows:

X
l X
n
@r k Xn X l
@r k Xn
δW 5 F kU δqi 5 F kU δqi Qi δqi (2.20)
k51 i51
@qi i51 k51
@qi i51
where
X
l
@r k
Qi 5 F kU (2.21)
k51
@qi
Qi is the generalized force corresponding to the generalized coordinate qi .

F k represents all the external and internal forces which act on the system.
If the virtual work done by the internal forces equals zero (such as the
case of ideal constraints), only the virtual work done by the external forces
needs to be considered. The generalized forces corresponding to each
generalized coordinate can be obtained from Eq. (2.20). In addition, the
generalized forces can be calculated by the following approaches [3]:
1. Eq. (2.21) can be rewritten in the form of projection as follows:
Xl
@xk @yk @zk
Qi 5 Fkx 1 Fky 1 Fkz (2.22)
k51
@qi @qi @qi
where Fkx , Fky , and Fkz are projections of F k onto the x, y, and z
axes, respectively, and xk , yk , and zk are the position coordinates of
particle mk . When xk , yk , and zk can be easily expressed as the func-
tions of generalized coordinates, it is convenient to obtain Qi in accor-
dance with Eq. (2.22).
2. All the generalized virtual displacements, except δqi , can be set to be
zero due to the independence of the generalized coordinates. Then, the
virtual work of the system to δqi could be given as δWi . The general-
ized force corresponding to qi could be obtained from the following
equation
δWi
Qi 5 (2.23)
δqi
When F k , k 5 1; 2; ?; l, includes all the forces (both the external and
internal forces) acting on the system, and Qi , i 5 1; 2; ?; n, are the gener-
alized forces associated with all forces, then the equilibrium equations in
the form of generalized forces can be expressed as follows:
Qi 5 0; i 5 1; 2; ?; n (2.24)
When F k , k 5 1; 2; ?; l, only includes part of forces acting on the sys-
tem, Qi , i 5 1; 2; ?; n, are the generalized forces associated with such part
of forces. For example, the generalized force Qi in the Lagrange’s equa-
tion, as shown in Eq. (2.46) in Section 2.8 of this book, is the one associ-
ated with all forces except the inertial forces.
Example 2.1: Fig. 2.11 shows a double pendulum. P1 and P2 are the
external forces acting on particles m1 and m2 , respectively. Here, ϕ1 and
ϕ2 are selected as the generalized coordinates. Determine the generalized
forces associated with P1 and P2 , respectively.
Solution (1):
F1x 5 F2x 5 F1z 5 F2z 5 0; F1y 5 P1 ; F2y 5 P2
It can be observed that F1x , F2x , F1z , and F2z equal zero. Then, only
y1 and y2 are required to be expressed as the functions of ϕ1 and ϕ2 ,
given by
y1 5 l1 cos ϕ1
y2 5 l1 cos ϕ1 1 l2 cos ϕ2
Figure 2.11 Analytical model of the generalized forces for a double pendulum.
Then,
@y1 @y1
5 2 l1 sin ϕ1 ; 50
@ϕ1 @ϕ2
@y2 @y2
5 2 l1 sin ϕ1 ; 5 2 l2 sin ϕ2
@ϕ1 @ϕ2
Thus one obtains
@y1 @y2
Q1 5 F1y 1 F2y 5 2 ðP1 1 P2 Þl1 sin ϕ1
@ϕ1 @ϕ1
@y1 @y2
Q2 5 F1y 1 F2y 5 2 P2 l2 sin ϕ2
@ϕ2 @ϕ2
Solution (2):
First, δϕ1 and δϕ2 are set to be nonzero and zero, respectively. Then, the
virtual displacements in the Cartesian coordinate system are given as follows:
δx1 5 l1 δϕ1 cos ϕ1 ; δy1 5 2 l1 δϕ1 sin ϕ1

The virtual work by forces P1 and P2 to δϕ1 is given as follows:

δW1 5 P1 δy1 1 P2 δy2 5 2 P1 l1 δϕ1 sin ϕ1 2 P2 l1 δϕ1 sin ϕ1
Substituting the above equation into Eq. (2.23) yields
Q1 5 2 ðP1 1 P2 Þl1 sin ϕ1
Second, δϕ1 and δϕ2 are set to be zero and nonzero, respectively. The
virtual displacements in the Cartesian coordinate system are given as follows:
δx1 5 0; δy1 5 0

The virtual work by forces P1 and P2 to δϕ2 is given as follows:
δW2 5 P1 δy1 1 P2 δy2 5 2 P2 l2 δϕ2 sin ϕ2
Finally, one obtains
Q2 5 2 P2 l2 sin ϕ2
Example 2.2: Fig. 2.12 shows a massspring system. P1 and P2 are the
external forces acting on masses m1 and m2 , respectively. v1 and v2 are
selected as the generalized coordinates. Determine the generalized forces
associated with all the forces acting on the system.
Solution:
Suppose that the system is subjected to the virtual displacements δv1
and δv2 . The virtual work done by the external and internal forces of the
system can be given respectively as follows:
1. The virtual work done by external forces P1 and P2 is P1 δv1 1 P2 δv2 .
2. The forces acting on m1 and m2 , which are induced by the spring k1 ,
are a pair of internal forces, which can be expressed as 2k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þ
Figure 2.12 Schematic diagram of a massspring system.

and k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þ, respectively. The virtual work by this pair of forces

could be expressed as 2k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv1 1 k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv2 .
3. Assume that the spring k2 is removed and the elastic force of the spring
k2 acting on m2 can be regarded as an external force expressed as 2k2 v2 .
The virtual work done by this force could be given as 2k2 v2 δv2 .
Finally, the total virtual work done by all the forces could be obtained as:
δW 5 P1 δv1 1 P2 δv2 2 k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv1 1 k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv2 2 k2 v2 δv2
5 ðP1 2 k1 v1 1 k1 v2 Þδv1 1 ðP2 1 k1 v1 2 k1 v2 2 k2 v2 Þδv2
In accordance with Eq. (2.20), one obtains
Q1 5 P1 2 k1 v1 1 k1 v2 ; Q2 5 P2 1 k1 v1 2 k1 v2 2 k2 v2
where Q1 and Q2 are generalized forces of the system associated with all
the forces. The equilibrium equations in the form of generalized forces
could be obtained as Q1 5 0 and Q2 5 0.
When the external forces P1 and P2 are time-varying, this means that the
system is a dynamic system, and the generalized coordinates v1 and v2 vary
with time. On the basis of the above deduction, the virtual work by the iner-
tial forces should be added, and can be expressed as 2m1 v€1 δv1 2 m2 v€2 δv2 .
Then, the total virtual work by all the forces could be written as
δW 5 P1 δv1 1 P2 δv2 2 k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv1 1 k1 ðv1 2 v2 Þδv2 2 k2 v2 δv2 2 m1 v€1 δv1 2 m2 v€2 δv2
5 ðP1 2 k1 v1 1 k1 v2 2 m1 v€1 Þδv1 1 ðP2 1 k1 v1 2 k1 v2 2 k2 v2 2 m2 v€2 Þδv2
Similarly, one could also obtain the following

Q1 5 P1 2 k1 v1 1 k1 v2 2 m1 v€1 ; Q2 5 P2 1 k1 v1 2 k1 v2 2 k2 v2 2 m2 v€2
where Q1 and Q2 are the generalized forces of the system associated with
all the forces. It should be noted that the forces in this case include the
inertial forces. The dynamic equilibrium equations in the form of general-
ized forces could be obtained as Q1 5 0 and Q2 5 0.
2.5 Conservative force and potential energy

According to the principle of the conservation of mechanical energy, the
work done by the gravity when an object falls freely from a certain height
is transformed into the kinetic energy of the object. This indicates that an
object has certain energy at the initial height. This type of energy is
known as gravitational potential energy. By considering the object falling
from the height z to the reference plane, the work done by the gravity
Figure 2.13 Gravitational potential energy of an object.
indicates the change of the object’s potential energy. For instance,

Fig. 2.13 shows the movement of an object from position B to A. Then,
the work done by the gravity can be given as
W 5 2mgðzA 2 zB Þ 5 2 ðVA 2 VB Þ (2.25)
where m is the mass of the object, g represents the acceleration of gravity,
zA and zB are the heights at positions A and B, respectively, and VA and
VB represent the potential energy of positions A and B, respectively.
It is shown from Eq.(2.25) that the change of the potential energy of
the object equals the negative value of the work done by the gravity.
Here, zB 5 0 and VB 5 0 could be obtained when the horizontal plane
through position B is chosen to be the reference plane, thus
VA 5 2ð2 mgzA Þ (2.26)
This indicates that the potential energy of an object at the position A
equals the negative value of the work done by gravity when the object
moves from the reference plane to position A. This is the criterion for
evaluating the gravitational potential energy.
The aforementioned criterion for evaluating the gravitational potential
energy is also applicable to the potential energy of an elastic system. As
shown in Fig. 2.14, the stiffness of the spring is k. The potential energy of
the spring at the positions x2 and x1 equals the negative value of the work
done by the elastic internal force from zero (unstretched position) to x2
and x1 , respectively,

1 2 1 2
V2 5 2 W2 5 2 2 kx2 ; V1 5 2 W1 5 2 2 kx1 (2.27)
2 2
The direction of the elastic internal force is opposite to that of the
spring’s displacement, which leads to the negative sign in the bracket of
Figure 2.14 Work by the spring’s elastic force.
Eq. (2.27). The change of the spring’s potential energy equals the negative
value of work done by the internal force of the spring when moving
from x2 to x1 , that is,

k 2
V2 2 V1 5 2 2 x2 2 x1 2
(2.28)
2
It should be noted that the elastic force is assumed to be a linear func-
tion of displacement. Therefore a coefficient 1/2 is present in Eq. (2.28).
Since the displacement of an object to the gravity is negligible in compar-
ison with the distance between the object and the earth’s center, the grav-
ity can be regarded as a constant. Thus the coefficient 1/2 is not present
in Eq. (2.26).
The common characteristics of the gravitational and elastic forces can
be concluded as follows:
1. The magnitude and direction of forces are entirely determined from
the position of the object.
2. As shown in Fig. 2.15, the object moves from position B to A. The
work done by the force only depends on the initial and final positions.
It is independent of the movement path of the object.
The force with the above characteristics is defined as the conservative
force. Choosing the position B as the zero position of potential energy,
the potential energy at an arbitrary position A is defined as the sum of
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for spiritual supremacy. No deed was considered too flagitious for
the removal of a dangerous and obstinate adversary. Innocent IV.
employed the trusted physician and friend of the Emperor Frederick
II. to compass his destruction. The Emperor Henry VII. was poisoned
by order of Clement V. The assassination of the Medici under Sixtus
IV. was planned by that Pope, and carried out before the altar, the
signal for attack being the elevation of the Host by the celebrant, an
archbishop. Half of the population of Rome was sacrificed to gratify
the malignity of Formosus, whose quarrels long survived him and
desolated the fairest provinces of Italy. Three years after the
establishment of the Inquisition in Spain by Gregory IX. its victims
already numbered tens of thousands.
In the variety and shrewdness of schemes for procuring money
the statesmen of no government have ever equalled the astute
financiers of the Apostolic See. In addition to the infinite number of
vexatious and cruel expedients suggested by the possession and
exercise of irresponsible power, the Popes employed means which
violated every precept of morality, but whose successful issue
demonstrated the practical wisdom which had inspired them. Simony
was invariably practised, and not infrequently defended, even by
those whose manifest duty it was to suppress it. The wealthiest
candidate for the Papacy, whose physical infirmities indicated a
speedy demise, had the best prospect for the realization of his
ambition. The price of a cardinal’s hat varied from one thousand to
ten thousand florins; the pallium of an archbishop was rated still
higher in the ecclesiastical market, for the dignity of which it was the
symbol usually brought thirty thousand ducats in gold. To meet this
tax demanded at the death of every metropolitan, the new incumbent
was sometimes reduced to pledge the furniture of the altar as
security to Jewish usurers, who alone were able to raise such
exorbitant amounts; and it was a source of complaint among the
devout that Hebrew children had been seen to amuse themselves
with the utensils consecrated to pious uses, and that in the
unhallowed orgies of their fathers sacred vessels were habitually
profaned which had originally been destined to receive the body and
blood of Christ. When the exigencies of the Pontiff required it, the
sacrifice of a few cardinals afforded a safe and easy means of
replenishing the Papal treasury by the sale of the vacant dignities
and by the reversion of the estates of the victims to the domain of
the Holy See. It is a well-known fact that Alexander VI. died from
drinking poisoned wine intended for certain princes of the Church
whom he had invited to share his treacherous hospitality. Great
wealth was obtained by the sale of absolutions granted by one Pope
from the anathemas of his predecessor. This device suggested the
traffic in indulgences, promising immunity from all punishment for
crime. The avarice of John XXII. prompted him to draw up and
promulgate a schedule of fines, so that by the payment of trifling
sums the culprit was completely absolved from the moral and
secular consequences of the most atrocious offences in the criminal
calendar.
In their relations with foreign courts the Popes brought to bear
every source of corruption and violence for the accomplishment of
their ends. They availed themselves of the prestige attaching to their
sacred office for the encouragement of insurrection and parricide.
They openly sold the investitures of distant kingdoms. They armed
the servant against his master, the vassal against his lord, the
subject against his king. They prohibited the education of children as
inimical to the interests of the clergy, who alone were declared
worthy to enjoy the benefits of learning. When an obnoxious enemy
was to be removed, they did not shrink from selecting instruments at
whose employment honor and piety alike revolt,—the envenomed
poniard, the sacramental elements mingled with deadly poisons and
yet blessed by the ceremonies of the officiating prelate, whose
instructions impressed the unsuspicious victim with the belief that he
knelt in the very presence of God. According to Montaigne, the Holy
Father was accustomed to use during the pontifical mass a
contrivance which counteracted the effects of a consecrated draught
which might otherwise be a messenger of death. From having been
the vassals of the Emperor, the tributaries of the Saracen Emirs, and
the tools of the Kings of France, the Popes in time arrogated to
themselves imperial prerogatives; and his title to the crown was not
considered as vested in a sovereign until it had been placed upon
his brow by an ecclesiastic duly commissioned by the Successor of
St. Peter. Through the insidious influence of a superstition, fostered
by the ignorance of the time, the authority of powerful monarchs was
disputed in their capitals. Degrading penances were imposed upon
and performed by them without remonstrance. The humiliation of the
prince in the eyes of his people increased, in a corresponding
degree, the importance of the spiritual ruler who could inflict such
punishments.
By excommunication and interdict—the one cutting off an
individual from the fellowship of believers, the other aimed at an
entire community or kingdom and involving the innocent with the
guilty—the vengeance of the Church was visited upon all, of
whatever rank, who had violated her canons or interfered with her
projects of ambition. It is difficult in our age to appreciate the grave
effects of ecclesiastical fulminations which the progress of
intelligence and the development of civilization have long since
deprived of their terrors. Of excommunication, anything besides a
human being might be the subject, from a comet to rats, worms, and
every kind of vermin. The interdict was equivalent to a dreadful curse
inflicted by the vicegerent of God. With awe-inspiring ceremonies,
usually performed at midnight to increase their impressive effect, the
decree of the Holy See was solemnly proclaimed. In gloomy silence,
occasionally broken by sobs and half-stifled lamentations, the terror-
stricken multitude listened to a sentence which, in their eyes,
exceeded, through the direful consequences it entailed, the severest
penalty that any earthly tribunal could inflict. The churches were
closed. The bells were silent. The tapers burning on the altars were
extinguished. The relics were concealed. Before every house of
worship where the Host was enshrined the consecrated wafer was
publicly committed to the flames. The crucifixes of chapel and
cathedral alike, enveloped in folds of black cloth, were hidden from
the reverential gaze of those on whose heads had fallen the censure
of the Almighty. All religious ceremonies were suspended save the
aspersion, which secured for the Church the hope of another
devotee, the solemnization of marriage, and the final rites which
dismissed the passing soul on the threshold of eternity. The
endearments of conjugal affection, the last blessing of the parent,
the diversions of youth, the familiar greetings of friendship and
esteem, were all prohibited. Surrounded by black-garbed priests
bearing torches, an officiating cardinal, robed in violet,—the
mourning of his order,—read the fatal edict which cut off absolutely
the only medium of communication between the sinner and his God.
From that moment the people were deprived of those welcome
ministrations which had been their pleasure and consolation from
infancy; which had directed their footsteps; which had confirmed
their wavering resolution in many an emergency; which had relieved
their sufferings; which had enhanced their happiness and furnished
almost their sole amusements. No opportunity was neglected to
impress the offending children of Rome with the awful consequences
of the malediction which the perversity of their rulers had inflicted
upon them. Subjects were absolved from their allegiance. The
channels of commerce were closed. Trade of every kind was
suspended. Worshippers, whose piety urged them, in spite of
ecclesiastical menace, to frequent the portals of the church, were
rudely driven back. The use of meat was forbidden, as in Lent; the
familiar objects connected with the service of religion disappeared;
the bells, deprived of their clappers, were taken down from the
steeples; the sacred effigies of the saints were laid upon the ground
and sedulously concealed from the profane gaze of an accursed
people; the rich trappings of the shrines, the utensils of the mass, the
vestments of the priests, were collected and carried away. The
festivals which stimulated the devotion and amused the leisure of the
gay and careless multitude were discontinued; the procession, which
impressed all classes with its solemnity and magnificence, no longer
moved with barbaric pomp through the crowded streets lined with
long rows of kneeling worshippers; the voice of prayer was unheard;
marriages were celebrated in church-yards; the bodies of the dead,
denied a resting-place in consecrated ground and deprived even of
the ordinary rites of sepulture, were cast unceremoniously beyond
the walls of cities, to be devoured by unclean beasts and to poison
the air with noxious odors.
When the ban was removed, the purification of every edifice, altar,
and vessel, the reconsecration of every relic and image,—rites which
demanded heavy contributions,—evinced the foresight and thrift of
the priesthood.
Such were the frightful methods by which the Papacy, in an age of
ignorance, punished a nation for the offences of a sovereign who
had thwarted its schemes, defied its power, or incurred its enmity. In
the estimation of the credulous—and in those days all were
credulous—the interdict was not only a general curse enforced by
every circumstance which could appeal to the prejudices of the
devout; it was the sudden intercepting of the means of salvation,
only attainable through the agency of the servants of the Church.
Mediæval writers have left us affecting accounts of the universal
wretchedness which the use of this instrument of ecclesiastical
tyranny produced. It rarely failed of success, for no monarch,
however bold or arbitrary, could long withstand its power; and the
mere threat of its exercise was often sufficient to strike terror into a
whole people and to peremptorily check the well-conceived designs
of ambitious royalty. The interdict only fell into disuse after the
foundation of the Inquisition, the most effective and formidable
weapon ever devised by the merciless spirit of Papal despotism.
With the financial exhaustion induced by profuse expenditure in
every species of luxury and vice, new and ingenious expedients
were invented for the relief of the pressing necessities of the Vatican.
The institution and frequent recurrence of the Jubilee, with its
concourse of millions of fanatics, each bearing his offering to the
insatiable genius of Rome; the Crusades, which acquired for the
Papacy incalculable wealth by the conveyance of lands for a nominal
consideration and the generous contributions of pilgrims; the
Constitutions of Leo, which declared the real property of
ecclesiastical foundations to be inalienable; the Inquisition, whose
origin was more political than moral, and by whose rules one-half of
the property of the condemned was forfeited to the sovereign and
one-half to the Church, are prominent examples of the financial
ability of the Popes.
The personal characters of the infallible and inspired guides of the
Christian world cannot be delineated in the fulness of their impious
depravity. The moral supremacy assumed by them as the
representatives of celestial power was presumed to excuse the open
indulgence of vices which even the most licentious temporal
potentates sedulously veiled from the eyes of mankind. For more
than two centuries the Papal court presented an almost
uninterrupted exhibition of profligacy, which scandalized devout
believers, whose imagination had invested the Holy Father with the
attributes of divinity, and excited the horror of the few eminent and
consistent Christian prelates who remained pure amidst the general
contamination. Some priests celebrated mass in a state of
intoxication. Others paraded the streets with a train of bacchantes
singing profane and licentious songs. They presented their boon
companions with the sacred vessels of the altar. Archbishops
appointed women of infamous antecedents to the superintendence
of convents. The Vatican swarmed with catamites and courtesans.
Colonies of nuns, members of the seraglios of the cardinals and the
Pope, occupied houses adjoining the sanctuary of St. Peter’s. The
satellites of the Papacy obtained the most lucrative employments by
means of unnatural blandishments and ministrations of unspeakable
vileness. The most debased ideas were entertained of the
ecclesiastical functions devolving upon the head of the Christian
communion. Ministers of religion were consecrated in stables.
Cathedrals were made the theatre of mummeries and obscene
dances. Virgins were torn from the precincts of the sanctuary and
dragged to the Papal harem. In the time of John XII. no woman was
safe from indignity and outrage in the very temple of God. Boniface
IX. sold a cardinal’s hat to a profligate adventurer named Bathalzar
Cossa, who afterwards seized the tiara by force and passed from the
deck of a pirate galley to the Apostolic Throne. The latter, under the
name of John XXIII., in a few years attained a reputation remarkable
even in the annals of Papal degradation. He was deposed by the
Council of Constance after conviction of every offence of which a
depraved imagination could conceive. The infallibility of his mission
was thus impugned both by his irregular appointment and by the
intervention of his spiritual subordinates who effected his deposition.
It was an axiom of the canon law, inevitably resulting from the
original spurious grant of pontifical authority, that no guilt or heresy of
the Pope could divest him of his spiritual powers or of the sanctity
which enveloped his person as the Vicar of God. A dire necessity
alone could impel a council to violate this fundamental principle upon
which depended the prestige of the Papacy. The impiety of the Holy
Fathers was not less prominent than their defiance of the rules of
morality. Boniface VIII. openly blasphemed the name of Christ. John
XXII. ridiculed the sacraments. At the banquets of John XII., Venus
and Bacchus were in turn toasted by noisy revellers of both sexes,
the favorite associates of that Pontiff.
The admissions of Pius II., in his correspondence preserved in the
Vatican, indicate without concealment the practice of the grossest
libertinage. From the orgies of Benedict XII. dates the famous
proverb, “Bibere papaliter,” “To drink like a Pope.” Sixtus IV., who
inaugurated the custom of licensing the brothels of Rome, derived
annually from this horrible traffic the enormous sum of thirty
thousand ducats. Innocent X. sold to the starving peasantry, at an
advance of a hundred per cent., the grain he had purchased at the
price he himself had fixed. Sixtus IV. gravely decreed that the
illegitimate children of the Popes should, by reason of their birth
alone, be placed on an equality with the descendants of the princely
houses of Italy. The scandals of the court of Avignon under Clement
VI. and his successors surpassed even those which had for ages
made the Eternal City a reproach to civilization and Christianity. Of
the latter, Benedict XII. has been conspicuously held up to the
execration of posterity as the violator of the sister of Petrarch, whose
connivance he attempted to purchase with a cardinal’s hat and a
purse of a thousand florins of gold. The bull of Alexander VI., which
countenanced the slaughter of fifteen million inoffensive natives of
the New World, is a fitting climax to this revolting chronicle of crime
and infamy. Well might the indignant Cardinal Baronius exclaim, that
“the Popes were monsters who installed themselves on the throne of
Christendom by simony and murder.” Few indeed there were of the
Holy Fathers who tolerated even the suspicion of profane learning in
their jurisdiction. Most of them were the implacable enemies of every
kind of knowledge. Gregory I. burned all the copies of Livy that the
most rigorous search could disclose. Gregory VIII., scandalized by
the “superstitious tales” contained in the work of the great Roman
historian, completed, as far as human energy and malignity could
effect, the destructive task of his predecessor. In consequence, out
of a hundred and forty-two books known to have existed during the
reign of these two Pontiffs, but thirty-five have survived. Sylvester II.
is said by Petrarch to have been “Negromante, e di dottrina
eccellente,” qualifications which seem rather incongruous with the
duties and the traditions of the Papacy. Nor was the famous Gerbert
the only Pope devoted to uncanonical and prohibited investigations
of the false science of the age. John XIX. was skilled in hydromancy;
John XX. was an expert in the casting of horoscopes and in
divination; Benedict IX. consulted the familiar geniuses of the forests
and the mountains; Gregory VII. possessed a manual of
enchantment, and shook clouds of sparks from his sleeves when he
pronounced the Pontifical blessing; Alexander VI. had the reputation
throughout Italy of “an abominable sorcerer.”
The spirit of infidelity and blasphemy which prevailed in the
highest ranks of the priesthood also infected the occupants of the
throne. The lives of some of the most devout sovereigns presented
incredible examples of cruelty, hypocrisy, and deceit. Ecclesiastical
example and the facility of absolution had apparently destroyed all
reverence for the precepts of the Gospel, all apprehension of Divine
wrath. The contempt often entertained by royalty for the decrees of
the Almighty is disclosed by the impious speech of Alfonso X., the
Most Catholic King, “If God had consulted me when He created the
world, I would have given Him some good advice.”
The spurious donation of Constantine, by which the first Christian
sovereign was alleged to have conveyed to Pope Sylvester I. the title
to the Western Empire, and with it the inherited authority of the
Cæsars, was supplemented in the eighth century by the Forged
Decretals, a series of epistles declared to have been promulgated by
the first Bishops of Rome, whose names and order of apostolic
succession are themselves either apocryphal or based entirely on
uncertain tradition. The inconsistencies, contradictions, and
absurdities of the Decretals, which afford abundant internal evidence
of the ignorance of those who composed them, and their entire want
of concord on important points of doctrine, have demonstrated
beyond question their fraudulent origin. But in an age of superstition
their authority was amply sufficient to accomplish the object for
which they were invented,—the autocracy of the Popes. The general
deficiency of critical knowledge, assisted by the reverence
entertained by the masses for the decisions of the Successor of St.
Peter, caused these glaring forgeries to be accepted with the same
faith which was accorded to the precepts of the Gospel. They
conferred the most extensive and dangerous prerogatives on the
Papacy. They subjected the claims of every temporal sovereign to
the extravagant pretensions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The
right of regal investiture was by their maxims declared to be inherent
in members of the sacerdotal order, and the title of a monarch
alleged to be imperfect until he had been crowned by a servant of
the Church. By their incorporation into the civil procedure of Europe,
—for centuries dominated by the canon law,—they established on a
permanent basis the ideas and the principles of Papal supremacy.
No measure of statecraft has ever advanced the interests of the Holy
See to such an extent as the publication of the Decretals, nor has
any genuine series of laws exercised over society a more potent
influence than that imposed by these fraudulent epistles upon
subsequent legislation.
The vast ecclesiastical system, whose ramifications extended to
the most insignificant hamlets of every country in Europe and whose
jurisdiction was paramount in the domains of the most powerful
monarchs, carried with it the abuses and vices of the central and
irresponsible authority. The spiritual courts of provincial
metropolitans and bishops presented on a diminished scale the
greed and sensuality of the Vatican. The same organized simony
regulated the presentation and promotion of clerk and prelate. The
same iniquitous expedients were adopted for the augmentation of
ecclesiastical revenues. Priests and bishops lived in avowed and
unblushing concubinage. The seraglio of the Abbot of San Pelayo de
Antealtaria contained seventy concubines. Henry III., Bishop of
Liege, acknowledged the paternity of sixty-five illegitimate children.
In Spain, the metropolitans, as well as their subordinates, maintained
harems guarded by eunuchs. In Germany, sacerdotal dignitaries of
the highest rank endeavored to overturn the empire by the aid of
idolaters, and enlisted bands of robbers who plundered cities and
extorted enormous ransoms from wealthy merchants and
defenceless travellers. In France, the clergy of Verdun regularly
furnished Jewish traders with Christian children who had been
emasculated for the slave-markets of Cordova and Seville. In Italy,
the sale of young and beautiful maidens to the Moors of Sicily and
Mauritania, which had invoked the indignant protest of Charlemagne,
was for many years one of the most lucrative perquisites of the
priesthood.
The laxity of morals prevalent in the hierarchy was fatal to the
preservation of ecclesiastical discipline. Priests and nuns, divesting
themselves of their sacred character, which was supposed to
present an edifying example to the laity, contended with each other
for the infamous superiority of promiscuous lewdness. The
contributions of charity, the oblations of the devout, were squandered
in drunken orgies and midnight banquets. In certain Swiss cantons a
new priest was compelled, on his arrival, to choose a concubine as a
theoretical safeguard of the honor of his female parishioners. These
connections were authorized by the laws of some countries, among
them the fueros of Castile, which permitted the sons of a celibate to
inherit half his property. The sale of licenses to entertain what were
known as “sub-introduced women” was for centuries a profitable
source of revenue to the bishops of England, and no priest was
exempt from this tax whether he wished to avail himself of its
privileges or not. The dignity of the sacred profession in France had
been degraded by the sacrilege of the Carlovingians, who appointed
their favorite officers to the richest benefices; and the antecedents
and manners of these rude veterans were, as may be supposed, but
ill-adapted to the solemn ceremonies of the altar and the
confessional. Following this worthy example, churchmen of the
highest rank conferred the best livings at their disposal on panders,
lackeys, and barbers. The coarse and unfeeling nature of the
German ecclesiastics did not hesitate to prompt the violation of every
sentiment of honor in the gratification of its brutal instincts. The
holding of pluralities in England had become an evil of national
importance. Many foreign prelates had never even visited the sees
whose revenues they enjoyed. The possession of from twenty to
thirty benefices was not uncommon, and some fortunate individuals
are mentioned who held from three to four hundred. The deplorable
condition of the priesthood was largely due to the enforcement of
celibacy on the one hand, and the sale of dispensations to violate it
on the other.
The poems, the satires, and the tales which have come down to
us from the Middle Ages reveal the profligate manners of the clergy,
as well as the general contempt in which they were held by those
whose consciences were nominally in their keeping. In these
amusing literary productions the priest, the monk, and the cardinal
are almost invariably objects of ridicule. Their peculiar garb, their
uncouth manners, their lubricity, their gluttony, their avarice, are
made the butt of profane and vulgar witticisms. They are entrapped
in ludicrous and compromising situations. They are made the victims
of severe practical jokes. The language put into their mouths is a
compound of obscenity and blasphemy. A society which could
countenance such scandalous revelations must have had scanty
respect for the clerical profession and its ministers. Assemblages of
eminent episcopal dignitaries fare little better than individuals at the
hands of the irreverent narrator. Nor can we wonder that such is the
case when we recall the conditions and the accessories associated
in the public mind with the Councils of the Church. At the departure
of the Papal court from Lyons, in the thirteenth century, Cardinal
Hugo, a distinguished prelate, in the presence of an immense
concourse, made the increased depravity of that city, for which its
reverend visitors were confessedly responsible, the subject of a
pleasing jest. The Holy Fathers of the famous Council of Constance
convoked to reform the priesthood, punish heresy, and establish a
more exalted standard of moral discipline for the edification of the
ungodly, beguiled the moments snatched from the labors of pious
deliberations and religious controversy in the society of crowds of
buffoons and dancers and of seven hundred courtesans. The
institution of the monastic orders not only contributed greatly to the
power of the Papacy but exercised, as well, a direct and generally a
most pernicious influence on society. An immense body of fanatics,
blindly devoted to the See of Rome, was placed at the absolute
disposal of the Pope,—invaluable allies in the bitter contests
between the Altar and the Throne. The mutual jealousies and
enmities of the secular and the regular clergy made both the more
dependent on the favor of the Supreme Pontiff. Every individual in a
religious house was sworn to inviolable secrecy concerning all that
took place within its walls, a regulation which became in subsequent
times a convenient precaution for the concealment of orgies that
shunned the light of day. The assumption of the vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience imparted to the monk and the begging friar a
peculiar sanctity in the eyes of the credulous multitude. They
mortified the flesh and suppressed carnal provocations by frequent
bleeding and long abstinence from food. They disclaimed the
aristocratic tastes which were a reproach to the luxurious members
of the secular priesthood. They renounced all the allurements, even
all the comforts, of life. Their physical necessities were supplied by
alms. Their fervid oratory, not confined by the pillared vaults of
churches, but which, in the open air, appealed to the imagination and
the prejudices of the ignorant, their voluntary renunciation of the
pleasures of the world, the ostentatious self-sacrifice of their lives,
made them universal favorites with the people. Men of all classes
showered gifts upon them. Women eagerly sought their services as
confessors. Their visits to the isolated villages of the simple
peasantry were hailed as harbingers of good fortune. Their abodes
offered gratuitous rest and refreshment to the belated traveller. Their
benediction attended the birth and the christening of the infants of
the poorest cottage. Their prayers brought consolation and relief to
the bedside of the earnest Christian and the repentant sinner alike.
At every fireside their temporary and accidental presence was
regarded as a blessing.
But a change soon came over the monastic orders. The
temptations of wealth, luxury, and personal enjoyment proved too
strong to be resisted. The robe of coarse cloth was metamorphosed
into a mantle of the finest fabric, trimmed with costly furs. The prior
no longer travelled alone and on foot, but rode an ambling palfrey,
followed by a train of obsequious attendants. The hermitage
developed into a stately palace, whose appointments and
surroundings equalled and not infrequently eclipsed in splendor the
seats of princes. The monk became a great landed proprietor. By
purchase, by gift, by inheritance, by forfeiture, he acquired in every
country large and profitable estates. Half of the lands of France were
at one time in his possession. The German nobility complained that
monasteries had absorbed the bulk of the real property of the
empire. The visitation of Henry VIII., which led to the suppression of
the religious houses of England, revealed the fact that the regular
clergy had for centuries enjoyed the fruits of the most productive and
valuable portion of the public domain. The peculiar character of its
tenure made ecclesiastical proprietorship the more oppressive. Its
title was in mortmain, and its estates inalienable. It could always
acquire, but never relinquish, territorial rights. The transfers of land,
which constitute so important an incentive to commercial activity in
every community, were not merely discountenanced, but were
absolutely prohibited, by its selfish and unjust regulations.
Monastic life, while nominally ascetic, presented in the more
opulent communities a picture of sybaritic indulgence. In the cloister
the refining influence of literature had, even with the gratification of
sensual appetites, modified in the monk the degrading propensities
and ferocious temper which actuated his associate, the feudal baron.
The dishes were more varied and delicate; the choicest wines took
the place of the coarse product of the brewery; and the conversation,
while fully as irreverent and licentious as that which entertained the
guests of the noble, was deprived of much of its repulsiveness by an
outward observance of decency. When overcome with too much
hospitality, the genial votary of Bacchus, instead of being left under
the table, exposed to the ridicule of his companions or the swords of
brawlers, was quietly conveyed to his cell by his more sober
brethren. The customs of the age imperatively demanded that the
head of a religious house should possess all the attributes of
aristocratic birth and gentle breeding. In the eyes of the Celt
especially, symmetry of form and dignity of carriage were
indispensable characteristics of the ruler of a monastic community.
Both abbot and abbess were selected for corporeal rather than for
moral or intellectual qualifications,—for handsome features,
commanding presence, and elegant manners. Popular opinion
insensibly associated mental superiority and pious inclinations with
physical perfection; and personal deformity was supposed,
especially by the ignorant multitude, to indicate a disposition to
crime. This belief, no doubt unconsciously derived from the
impressions left by the Pagan deities of antiquity, in whose statues,
models of beauty, were embodied the unrivalled conceptions of the
ancient sculptor, demonstrates the persistent survival of time-
honored tradition and religious prejudice in the human mind.
With the unlimited opportunities for their gratification, uncanonical
practices were at first secretly indulged in and afterwards openly
tolerated. The refectory, once noted for frugality and pious
exhortation, was now the scene of gluttonous feasts and licentious
jesting. Foreign delicacies and wines of exquisite flavor appeared
daily on the table. Monks and nuns maintained unholy relations
under the same roof. Many priors had acknowledged concubines,
and he who restricted himself to a single mistress was regarded as a
paragon of ecclesiastical virtue. In contravention of every rule of their
order, monks assumed disguises and wandered over the country in
search of amorous adventures. Through their agency obnoxious
relatives were kidnapped and forced into perpetual confinement, or,
if sufficient pecuniary inducements were offered, made to disappear
forever from the knowledge of man. In England they frequently
figured in disgraceful brawls with other dissipated patrons of
lupanars and taverns. The monasteries of Spain, France, and Italy
presented an even more disgraceful picture of drunkenness,
licentiousness, and disorder.
The reputation for dissolute practices sustained by the convent
was in no respect inferior to that of the monastery. The nuns
notoriously affected all the airs and graces of the most accomplished
coquetry. They arrayed themselves in rich garments covered with
beautiful embroidery, the work of their own skilful hands. Their
chemises of violet silk, their scarlet shoes, their veils of silver tissue,
were the delight of their admirers and the abomination of the pious.
They wore chains and bracelets of gold and rings set with precious
gems. They painted their faces. King Edgar publicly reproved the
nuns of his kingdom for their attire of purple and their jewels. The
inmates of Fontevrault wore the horned head-dress affected by the
fashionable ladies of the time. The spouses of Christ adopted every
art to attract the attention of the sinful passer-by. In the orgies which
defiled even the houses dedicated to divine worship their
shamelessness was proverbial. They bathed in perfect nudity with
monks and deacons. They sang bacchanalian songs. Their
conversation was spiced with blasphemous ribaldry. The universal
prevalence of the evil is proved by the frequency with which it is
denounced by the Councils of the Church. The Council of Cologne,
held in 1307, was especially severe in its reprobation of the custom
by which nuns abandoned for a time the conventual life for a career
of debauchery and then resumed their former relations with the
Church, without repentance, and, what was even worse, without
remonstrance from their superiors.
For indulgence in these pleasures prohibited by the laws of God
and man, the revenues of the religious houses, although in many
instances enormous, were entirely inadequate. The extravagant
demands of the Holy See, which collected its tribute at frequent and
irregular intervals, further reduced the financial resources of the
monastic treasury. The ingenuity of the abbots was not at a loss,
however, to devise means to replenish their exhausted coffers.
Noble forests, many of them contemporaneous with the reign of the
Druidical priesthood, were cut down and sold. Chalices, patens,
ciboria, and crucifixes were placed in pawn with Jewish goldsmiths
and merchants. Jewels were extracted from votive offerings and altar
ornaments and disposed of at a fraction of their real value. These
thefts of sacred articles were so serious that inventories of the
furniture and utensils of cathedrals were often taken by the orders of
primates and sovereigns, rather with a view to discover the losses
than to put a stop to a practice which under the existing system was
incurable. Absolutions, some forged, but many genuine, bearing the
Papal seal and ready to be filled up with the name of the purchaser
and the description of the offence of which he was guilty or which he
was about to commit, were at the disposal of every criminal. The
official visitors of the English abbeys discovered in the cells of
recluses who were popularly supposed to be laying up treasures in
heaven implements of the counterfeiter and quantities of spurious
coin. With the ministrations to the dying the duty of the sufferer to the
Church was unceasingly inculcated by the shrewd confessor, until it
came to be considered an act of impiety, ranked with sacrilege and
suicide, to refuse to bequeath a large share of one’s wealth to the
servants of God.
The number, riches, and influence of these ecclesiastical
establishments were enormous. At the end of the thirteenth century,
there were six hundred monasteries and convents in England, two
thousand three hundred and thirty-seven in France, and fifteen
hundred in the remaining countries of Europe. Many of these
supported communities of more than a thousand monks; that of the
great Abbey of Bangor—the largest in Great Britain—numbered
three thousand. Towns, villages, and immense tracts of arable soil,
pasture, and forest were included in their possessions. Multitudes of
tenants and vassals tilled these lands, the lion’s share of whose
produce found its way into the storehouses and granaries of the
prosperous Fathers. The religious duties of the latter did not hinder
them from profiting by the advantages of domestic and foreign trade.
They bought and sold almost every description of merchandise. The
usurious rates of interest which they obtained from necessitous
borrowers extorted the admiration of the shrewd and experienced
Hebrew broker. They managed tanneries, dealt extensively in cloth
and leather, and imported many luxuries from the Orient. The wool
market of England was absolutely controlled by them. The popular
clamor aroused by this monopoly, which dispossessed and ruined
tenants by turning tillable land into pasture and depriving large
numbers of industrious people of the means of livelihood,
contributed, in no small degree, to the suppression of the English
monasteries. An inexhaustible mine of wealth was made available by
traffic in relics and the entertainment and fleecing of pilgrims. The
methods of the Holy See in the sale of sacred objects of more than
doubtful authenticity were improved upon by the cunning and
audacity of monkish charlatans. Immense quantities of bones were
imported from Italy and disposed of to the devout at fabulous prices.
Most of these sacred treasures were taken from the catacombs,
where was deposited a practically unlimited supply of Pagan and
barbarian skeletons, whose original owners never dreamed of the
adoration they were destined one day to receive on the banks of the
Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube. When a church was
to be constructed, no difficulty was ever experienced in procuring the
relics of the saint to which it was dedicated, and the mouldering
remains of some priest of Jupiter or Venus were probably not
infrequently laid, with every token of reverence, under the altar of a
magnificent cathedral, whose idolatrous ceremonies would have
presented many striking points of resemblance with heathen rites to
the frequenters of the ancient temples. Other sacred mementos of
equal virtue often presented a singular mixture of absurdity and
blasphemy. The reproductions of the crown of thorns and the nails of
the Crucifixion were infinite in number. The list included the coals
that roasted St. Lawrence, the cloth used at the Lord’s Supper, a
finger of the Holy Ghost, and some of the milk of the Mother of God.
The tail of Balaam’s ass was for a century one of the most precious
treasures of St. John Lateran at Rome. When the zeal of the pious
flagged, the genius of the monks resorted to extraordinary means to
stimulate this unprofitable apathy. The sympathies and fanaticism of
the superstitious were appealed to by processional images which
could weep and bleed. Letters were exhibited purporting to have
been penned by the divine hands of the Almighty and the Saviour.
The composition and style of these productions, it may be remarked,
indicate an extraordinary degree of illiteracy in the exalted
personages to whom their execution was profanely attributed. Many
relics were supposed to possess marvellous healing virtues, an
opinion diligently propagated by those whose interest it was to have
it generally entertained. Pilgrims crowded in enormous numbers to
these shrines, whose reputation promised speedy and certain relief
from every physical infirmity. As few came empty handed, the
contents of a single reliquary were often a more important source of
revenue than all the royal demesnes of a kingdom. In the Middle
Ages the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury was by far the richest
in Christendom. It had for three hundred years received the tribute of
pilgrims from every land. Kings had placed crowns and priceless
jewels upon its altar. The great tomb of the saint was entirely
covered with plates of gold, but the precious metal was hardly visible
on account of the profusion of gems with which it was incrusted. The
value of the gold and silver obtained by its confiscation under Henry
VIII. was nearly one million pounds sterling, and this estimate did not
include the precious stones, of which no appraisement was made.
Much of this wealth had been accumulated by the thrifty monks
through the sale of water alleged to contain a portion of the blood of
St. Thomas shed at the time of his martyrdom, whose supply, by the
miraculous power of multiplication enjoyed by certain relics, was
never exhausted, and which, aided by implicit faith and religious
enthusiasm, may really have been instrumental in temporarily
relieving diseases induced by disordered functions of the nervous
system.
The power of the rulers of these populous communities was very
extensive. In most instances the abbot enjoyed not a few of the
highest privileges of the nobility. In addition to his spiritual functions,
he exercised the duties of a civil and criminal magistrate, and in
extreme cases could inflict the penalty of death. He was expected to
act as sponsor to children of royal lineage. While bound to observe
the rules of his order, his interpretation of those rules was final and
his decision absolute. In England, if entitled to wear the mitre, he sat
in the Upper House of Parliament by the side of the bishops. Usually
he was a veritable epicurean, more fond of field sports than of his
breviary, a jovial companion, a connoisseur of wines, an adorer of
women. His table, his attire, and his habits exhibited all the
fastidiousness of a sybarite. Numerous dishes, prepared by skilful
cooks, tempted his pampered tastes. The wines of his cellar were
the choicest and most expensive in the market. His garments were
sometimes of party-colored and embroidered silk, sometimes of
scarlet cloth lined with white satin. His boots, of the softest leather,
fitted his burly limbs without a wrinkle. Jewels sparkled upon his
snowy fingers. The retainers of his household were clad in gaudy
liveries. He maintained jesters and buffoons. To the noble
amusement of hawking he was so devoted, and his falcons were so
excellent, that for these reasons he often incurred the envy of his
aristocratic companions and the severe censure of his more rigid
ecclesiastical superiors. Troops of strolling players always found a
welcome and munificent largess for their exhibitions in the great hall
of the abbey. In addition to the nuns, of whom he was the especial
patron, high-born ladies were delighted to receive his amorous
compliments and to partake of his dangerous but splendid
hospitality.
The inmates of the religious houses entertained far closer
relations with the great body of the population than did the secular
clergy. The original simplicity of their lives, the apparent fervor of
their devotion, acquired for them a peculiar sanctity which their
subsequent irregularities could never entirely abrogate. Unlike the
secular priesthood, whose traditions were of an aristocratic
tendency, their necessities and their ministrations brought them in
intimate contact with the lower orders of the people, who repaid their
services with fulsome idolatry. Of the two divisions of the regular
clergy, the friars, who only differed from the monks in that they
subsisted on alms, enjoyed the greater consideration. Their blessing
was earnestly solicited by the traveller on the highway. Ladies wore
their rope girdles in Lent, partly by way of penance, partly as amulets
of sovereign virtue against the machinations of evil spirits. The
spurious relics which they hawked about were supposed to be
endowed with more miraculous qualities than those retailed by the
bishop in the cathedral. Their eloquence carried with its pathetic
appeals and homely illustrations a conviction denied to the labored
efforts of the most accomplished and popular preacher.
It was not within the power of human nature to long withstand the
allurements which such opportunities for luxurious indulgence
afforded. Within less than half a century from their foundation, the
mendicant friars of St. Francis could boast of wealth equal to that of
any of the monastic orders. Their common appellation Cordelier,
derived from their hempen girdle, became a synonym of lubricity and
drunkenness. Both monks and friars enticed wives from their
husbands, and not infrequently reduced the latter to beggary. They
administered narcotics and aphrodisiacs to nuns, and pointed to their
contortions and incoherent ravings as the effects of divine
inspiration. It was an ordinary occurrence for young girls to don male
attire and take up their abode in a monastery; and a memorial of the
time of Henry VII. of England is extant in which the royal protection is
solicited by the farmers and gentry of Carnarvonshire against the
dissolute practices of the regular clergy. The profanity of the monks
during the celebration of the mass, and their offensive language in
the confessional, sometimes resulted in temporary suspension from
those sacerdotal functions. Gaming was a common amusement in
which even abbesses had been known to indulge. Whenever an
abbot died the treasury was plundered, and its contents distributed
among the brethren fortunate enough to be present.
These excesses were encouraged by the insignificant penances
imposed for their commission. Some escaped with a reprimand,
especially when the prior was known to be equally guilty. Among the
English clergy, mortal sin could be condoned for the trifling sum of
six shillings and eight pence. Bearing a crucifix through the aisles of
the church and a fine of three shillings and four pence entitled a
delinquent to absolution for incest. Fornication was expiated by an
offering of candles and the repetition of a few Paters and Aves. As in
the case of the laity, a regular schedule existed, accurately defining
the punishments to be inflicted for every degree of ecclesiastical
misconduct.
The ordinary criminal courts of judicature, through the operation of
privileges extorted from stupid and fanatical sovereigns by the
astuteness of designing churchmen and the prejudices of a
superstitious age, had no authority over a clerk until he had been
condemned by a religious tribunal. The course of prosecution, in
which the sympathies of the judges were enlisted on the side of the
culprit, through the bond of a common profession, and often by
reason of participation in similar offences, was always slow and
sometimes interminable. By these delays, and the purposely
complicated process of the spiritual courts, the civil statutes were
practically nullified. The mutual antagonism of the lay and clerical
professions indirectly encouraged the most revolting crimes. As the
learning of Europe was monopolized by the clergy, every one who
was able to read was deemed a “clerk,” and could demand the
interference and protection of the ecclesiastical authorities in case of
arrest. The tonsure was also regarded as prima-facie evidence of
being in orders, and of equal efficacy in obtaining immunity, as many
of the priesthood were ignorant of letters. By taking advantage of
these privileges, so dangerous to the welfare of society, desperate
malefactors continually escaped the consequences of their deeds;
and the criminal, whose scanty learning or shaven crown suggested
a connection with the all-powerful hierarchy, was demanded in vain

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About the authors ix

1. Overview of structural dynamics 1

2. Formulation of equations of motion of systems 13

2.11.1 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices 59

3. Analysis of dynamic response of SDOF systems 79

4. Analysis of dynamic response of MDOF systems:

5. Analysis of dynamic response of continuous systems:

6. Approximate evaluation of natural frequencies and

6.5.4 RayleighRitz method 241

7. Step-by-step integration method 245

Dr. Zhihui Zhou is currently an associate professor at the School of

received the awards of the Science and Technology Progress of Hunan

Dr. Chenzhi Cai received his BS degree in civil engineering and MS

Prof. Qingyuan Zeng is a distinguished scientist on bridge engineering at

Nowadays, the design of engineering structures, for example, long-span

follows: Zhihui Zhou is responsible for the writing of Chapters 1 to 4;

Overview of structural dynamics

Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

The investigation of structural dynamics focuses on understanding the

1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics

could be treated as a static problem (a better understating of this concept

1.3 Classification of vibrations

system should be determined first. Then, the interaction among

the natural frequency associated with transverse bending of the bar,

1.4 Vibration problems in engineering

Figure 1.3 Three factors representing system vibration.

1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures

1.5.2 Analysis of excitation

Figure 1.4 Configuration of a simply supported beam: (A) accurate description;

on a bridge include the wheelrail contact forces caused by the hunting

Prescribed dynamic loads include both periodic and nonperiodic loads.

1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation

1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system

where q is the generalized displacement vector; q_ is the generalized veloc-

1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion

1.5.6 Vibration tests

2.1 System constraints

Figure 2.1 Position of a particle in the basic coordinate system.

Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

system. Bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures are considered to be

Figure 2.2 Particle constrained by a rigid rod.

Figure 2.3 Cylinder rolling horizontally.

Figure 2.4 Motion of an ice skate in a plane.

satisfy the following relationship

Figure 2.5 Motion of a planar pendulum.

the direction of the y axis. The constraint equation of particle m can be

2.2 Representation of system configuration

Figure 2.6 Motion of a double pendulum.

The coordinates x1 , y1 of the mass m1 and x2 , y2 of the mass m2 should

Figure 2.7 Description of the configuration of a simply supported beam.

the boundary constraints