Basic Dynamic Analysis: Emphasis on

Single Degree of Freedom

 Static vs Dynamic analyses
• In dynamic analysis, all forces and effects have
time factor (or duration) involved
 Types of dynamic loadings
• Almost any structural system is subjected to
dynamic load during its lifetime (from slow
varying live load to fast changing wind or
traffic load)
• Can be divided into periodic & non-periodic:
– Periodic loadings means repetitive loads having
same time variation successively for large no of
cycles
– Non-periodic loadings are either short duration
(impulsive) or of long duration type
Periodic loadings
Non-periodic loadings
Measurable behavior of structures
• Max displacement
• Interstory drift
• Acceleration
• Velocity
• Natural period
• Natural frequency
• Damping factor
• Ductility factor
 Degrees of freedom…1
• Number of DOF in a dynamic system = least
number of coordinates needed to define
position of mass in the system
Degrees of freedom…2
 Degrees of freedom…3
• Classical spring-damper-mass system
 Equilibrium of moving mass
• By Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion:
 d’Alembert’s Principle
• Concept that a mass develops an inertial
force proportional to its acceleration and
opposing it.
• The force p(t) may be considered to include
many types of forces acting on the mass.
SDOF (by direct equilibrium)
 Effect of gravitational forces
• Consider the
SDOF system
on the RHS
with additional
self-weight
acting on the
system.
Fundamentals of harmonic motion
• When the motion
repeated in equal
time intervals, it
is called periodic
motion.
• Its simplest form
is the harmonic
motion, as shown
on the right.
 Relationship between frequency
and period
• The quantity  (for angular velocity) is
measured in radians per sec, is referred to as
circular frequency.
• Since motion repeats itself in 2 radians (one
full oscillation or one full circular motion),
then: 1
t  2 ; t 
f
2
  2f
t
 Linear acceleration in terms of
angular velocity 
• The linear displacement x:
x  A sin t

 
x  A cos t  A sin  t  
 2

x   2 A sin t   2 A sin t   
Since x  A sin t
  x  A sin t   

Then, x   2 x
 Natural frequency

Self  weight : k  w  mg   k
m
nd
Newton' s 2 Law : Natural frequency and period :

 F  m x  w  k   x  2f n  n  k
m
 k 1 
m x  kx    2
fn  k ; T  2 m  2
m 2 m k g
 Worked example 1
• A ¼-kg mass is suspended by a spring having a
stiffness of 0.1533 N/mm.
• Determine its natural frequency in cycles per
sec.
• Determine it statical deflection.
 Worked example 1 – solution p1
• Natural frequency:
1 k 1 153.3
fn    3.941 Hz
2 m 2 0.25

• Statical deflection:
Re lationship : mg  k
mg 0.25  9.81
   16mm
k 0.1533
 Worked example 2
• Determine the natural frequency of the mass
M on the end of a cantilever beam of
negligible mass shown below.
• M = 100 kg; E = 205000 MPa; I = 1.25x106
mm4; L = 2.5m.
 Worked example 2 – solution p1
• The deflection of the cantilever beam under a
concentrated end force P is,
PL3 P 3EI
x   k
3EI k L3

fn 
1 k

1 3EI

1 
3205000 1.25  106 
2 M 2 ML3
2 10025003
i.e. f n  0.1116 Hz
 Analysis of free vibrations
• Two types:
– Undamped free vibrations
– Damped free vibrations
• But, what is a damped vibration?
– It is a device which essentially reduces the initial
vibration caused by a dynamic force exerted onto
a body mass
– The effect is governed by a damping constant

c,
which provide a counter force equal to c x .
 Undamped free vibrations – 1
• If there is no external force applied on the
system, , the system will experience
free vibration.
• Motion of the system will be established by an
initial disturbance (i.e. initial conditions).
• Furthermore, if there is no
resistance or damping in the
system, , the oscillatory
motion will continue forever with a
constant amplitude.
• Such a system is termed
undamped.
 Undamped free vibrations – 2
• The equation of motion derived can be
simplified to,
• with the initial conditions,

• This equation of motion is a second order,

homogeneous, ordinary differential equation
(ODE); the characteristic equation for this
problem is:
 Undamped free vibrations – 3
• The final solution (that contains the 2
independent roots from the characteristic
equation and satisfies the initial conditions) is:

• The natural frequency wn is defined by

 Undamped free vibrations – 4
• Alternatively, the solution may be expressed
by the equivalent form:

• where the amplitude A0 and initial phase 0

are given by:
 Undamped free vibrations – 5
• The displacement plot of an undamped
system would appear as:
 Undamped free vibrations – 6
• Please note that an assumption of zero
damping is typically not accurate.
• In reality, there almost always exists some
resistance in vibratory systems.
• This resistance will damp the vibration and
dissipate energy; the oscillatory motion
caused by the initial disturbance will
eventually be reduced to zero.
 Damped free vibrations – 1
• Free vibration (no external force) of a single
degree-of-freedom system with viscous
damping can be illustrated as,
• Damping that produces a
damping force proportional to
the mass's velocity is commonly
referred to as "viscous
damping", and is denoted
graphically by a dashpot.
 Damped free vibrations – 2
• For an unforced damped SDOF system, the
general equation of motion becomes,

• with the initial conditions,

• This equation of motion is a second order,

homogeneous, ordinary differential equation
(ODE); the characteristic equation for this
problem is:
 Damped free vibrations – 3
• The roots to the characteristic equation fall
into one of the following 3 cases:
1. If < 0, the system is termed underdamped. The roots
of the characteristic equation are complex conjugates,
corresponding to oscillatory motion with an exponential decay in
amplitude.
2. If = 0, the system is termed critically-damped. The
roots of the characteristic equation are repeated, corresponding
to simple decaying motion with at most one overshoot of the
system's resting position.
3. If > 0, the system is termed overdamped. The roots
of the characteristic equation are purely real and distinct,
corresponding to simple exponentially decaying motion.
 Damped free vibrations – 4
• Definitions of common terms used:
– Critical damping cc,

– Damping ratio , cv
or  
2 mk
– Damped vibration frequency d

– Natural frequency of the system

– Note that wd will equal wn when the damping of the
system is zero (i.e. undamped)
 Underdamped systems – 1
• When < 0 (equivalent to < 1 or < ), the
characteristic equation has a pair of complex conjugate roots.
The displacement solution for this kind of system is
 Underdamped systems – 2
• An alternate but equivalent solution is given
by:

• Note that the displacement amplitude decays

exponentially (i.e. the natural logarithm of the
amplitude ratio for any two displacements
separated in time by a constant ratio is a
constant)
 Underdamped systems – 3
• The displacement plot of an underdamped
system would appear as

Ak = refers to amplitude of oscillation

 Underdamped systems – 4
• For low values of damping, the logarithmic
2
decrement in damping,  (given as   )
1  2
can be approximated as,
  2
• The damping ratio can be represented as,
Ak  Ak 1
 
2  Ak 1 
 Worked example 3
• A 1-story building is idealized as a rigid girder supported by weightless
columns as shown in next slide.
• In order to evaluate the dynamic properties of the structure, a free-
vibration test is made, in which the roof system (rigid girder) is displaced
laterally by a hydraulic jack and then suddenly released.
• During the jacking operation, it is observed that a force of 9072 kg is
required to displace the girder by 0.508 cm.
• After the instantaneous release of this initial displacement, the maximum
displacement on the first return swing is only 0.406 cm and the period of
this displacement cycle is T = 1.40 sec.
• Determine the following dynamic properties: effective weight of girder,
undamped frequency of vibration, logarithmic decrement, damping ratio,
damping coefficient, damped frequency and amplitudes after six cycles.
 Worked example 3
• Vibration test of a simple building
 Worked example 3 – solution p1
• Effective weight of girder:
9072 kg  9.81
T  1.40 sec; k  10 3  17520 kN / m
0.00508m
m W
T  2  2  1.40 sec
k gk
2
 1.40 
Hence, W    gk  0.059.8117520  8593 kN
 2 
i.e. m  876000 kg
 Worked example 3 – solution p2
• Undamped frequency of vibration:
Circular frequency :
2 2
  2f    4.48 rad / sec
T 1.40
Undamped frequency of vibration :
1 1
fn    0.714 Hz
T 1.40
 Worked example 3 – solution p3
• Damping properties:
 0.508 
Logarithmic decrement :   ln   0.224
 0.406 
 0.224
Damping ratio :     0.0357 or 3.57%
2 2
Damping coefficient : c  cc   2m
 0.0357  28760004.48
 280208 kg  sec/ m
Damped frequency :  D  n 1   2
 4.48 1  0.03572  4.48rad / sec
 Worked example 3 – solution p4
• Amplitude after six cycles:
6 6
 A1   0.406cm 
A6    A0    0.508cm  0.1324cm
 A0   0.508cm 
 Critically-damped systems – 1
• When = 0 (equivalent to = 1 or = ), the
characteristic equation has repeated real roots. The
displacement solution for this kind of system is

• The critical damping factor cc can be interpreted as the

minimum damping that results in non-periodic motion (i.e.
simple decay).
 Critically-damped systems – 2
• The displacement plot of a critically-damped system with
positive initial displacement and velocity would appear as

• The displacement decays to a negligible level after one natural period, Tn. Note
that if the initial velocity v0 is negative while the initial displacement x0 is positive,
there will exist one overshoot of the resting position in the displacement plot
 Overdamped systems – 1
• When > 0 (equivalent to > 1 or > ), the
characteristic equation has a pair of complex conjugate roots.
The displacement solution for this kind of system is
 Overdamped systems – 2
• The displacement plot of an overdamped
system would appear as
 Overdamped systems – 3
• The motion of an overdamped system is non-
periodic, regardless of the initial conditions.
The larger the damping, the longer the time to
decay from an initial disturbance.
• If the system is heavily damped, , the
displacement solution takes the approximate
form,
 Assignment 4
• The weight of a building is W = 91000 kgf, and the building is
set into free vibration by releasing it (at time t = 0) from a
displacement of 3.05cm.
• If the maximum displacement on the return swing is 2.18cm
at time t = 0.64 sec, determine the following:
– (a) lateral spring stiffness k
– (b) the damping ratio 
– (c) the damping coefficient c
 SDOF systems under harmonic
excitation – 1
• When a SDOF system is forced by f(t), the
solution for the displacement x(t) consists of
two parts:
– the complimentary solution, and
– the particular solution.
• The complimentary solution for the problem is
given by the free vibration discussion.
• The particular solution depends on the nature
of the forcing function.
 SDOF systems under harmonic
excitation – 2
• When the forcing function is harmonic (i.e. it
consists of at most a sine and cosine at the
same frequency, a quantity that can be
expressed by the complex exponential eiwt),
the method of Undetermined Coefficients can
be used to find the particular solution.
• Non-harmonic forcing functions are handled
by other techniques.
 SDOF systems under harmonic
excitation – 3
• Consider the SDOF system forced by the
harmonic function f(t):
 SDOF systems under harmonic
excitation – 4
• The particular solution for this problem is found to be,

• The general solution is given by the sum of the

complimentary and particular solutions multiplied by
two weighting constants c1 and c2,

• The values of c1 and c2 are found by matching x(t = 0)

to the initial conditions.
 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 1
• For an undamped system (cv = 0) the total
displacement solution is
 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 2
• If the forcing frequency is close to the natural
frequency, , the system will exhibit
resonance (very large displacements) due to the
near-zeros in the denominators of x(t).
• When the forcing frequency is equal to the natural
frequency, we cannot use the x(t) given above as it
would give divide-by-zero.
• Instead, we must use L'Hôspital's Rule to derive a
solution free of zeros in the denominators…see
next slide
 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 3

• To simplify x(t), let's assume that the driving force

consists only of the cosine function,

– see next slide……

 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 4

• The displacement solution reduces to,

 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 5
• This solution contains one term multiplied by t. This term will
cause the displacement amplitude to increase linearly with
time as the forcing function pumps energy into the system, as
shown in the following displacement plot
 Undamped SDOF systems under
harmonic excitation – 6
• The maximum displacement of an undamped system
forced at its resonant frequency will increase
unbounded according to the solution for x(t) above.
• However, real systems will inject additional physics
once displacements become large enough.
• These additional physics (nonlinear plastic
deformation, heat transfer, buckling, etc.) will serve
to limit the maximum displacement exhibited by the
system, and allow one to escape the "sudden death"
impression that such systems will immediately fail.
Extra information

Damping in SDOF systems

 Introduction of damping in SDOF
Example : mass-spring-damper system :
- c(dx/dt)
c
m
x
- kx k

Equation of free vibration :

mass × acceleration = spring force + damper force

mx  - kx  cx

Equation of motion: mx  cx  kx  0

 Damping in SDOF – 1
Example : mass-spring-damper system :
c
m
x
k

Equation of free vibration : mx  cx  kx  0

c
Ratio of damping to critical c/cc :  
2 mk

which is often expressed as a percentage,   100%

 Damping in SDOF – 2
Damper is removed :

m
x(t)

Equation of motion : mx  kx  0

1 k n
Undamped natural frequency : fn  
2π m 2
21
Period of vibration, T : T 
n f n
kx   mx
where  mx is an equivalent static force (or ‘inertial’ force)
 Damping in SDOF – 3
Free vibration following an initial displacement :
c
m
x
k

Initial displacement = Xo

x (t )  C.e nt cos( n t 1   2   )

2
k X0 2
n 2
 C tan  
m 1-  2 1-  2
 Damping in SDOF – 4
Free vibration following an initial displacement :

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
amplitude

0.2
0
-0.2 0 1 2 3 4 5
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
time/T
 Damping in SDOF – 5
Free vibration following an initial displacement :
C.e nt
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
amplitude

0.2
0
-0.2 0 1 2 3 4 5
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
time/T
 Damping in SDOF – 6
Response to sinusoidal excitation :
c
F(t) m
Frequency of
excitation
k

Equation of motion :
mx  cx  kx  F(t)  Fo sint

Steady state solution : x(t)  Fo /k  H(f) sin t   

1  = 2f
2
 f  2
 2
H(f) = 2 f 
1      4ζ  
  f n    fn 
 Glossary
Term Description
Beat Phenomenon When a two degree-of-freedom system has two closely spaced natural frequencies, w n1 and wn2,
vibration kinetic energy will transfer from one degree-of-freedom to the other in a periodic
fashion. The frequency of this transfer is known as the beat frequency, given by (w n1 - wn2) / 2.

Critical Damping The minimum damping that results in non-periodic motion of a system under free vibration.

Damping Ratio The ratio of a system's actual damping to its critical damping. When less than 1, the system in
underdamped and will exhibit ringing when disturbed. When larger than 1, the system is
overdamped and disturbances will die out without ringing.

Free Body Diagram A schematic isolating an object (or part of an object) from its environment for the purpose of
revealing all external forces and moments acting on the object. Free body diagrams are helpful in
applying Newton’s 2nd Law of motion to objects.
Maxwell's Reciprocity For two identically-sized forces applied at the distinct points A and B on a linear structure,
Theorem Maxwell’s Reciprocity Theorem states that the displacement at A caused by the force at B is the
same as the displacement at B caused by the force at A. As a result, the flexibility matrix (and its
inverse, the stiffness matrix) of linear systems is symmetric.
Natural Frequency A frequency where a system resonance exists. If excited at this frequency, the system will exhibit
very large displacements (for low damping levels). If the system is undamped, then vibrations
can occur at the natural frequency without any external excitation indefinitely.
Resonance A condition where very little energy input into a structure results in a very large displacement
(for low damping levels). By definition, resonances occur at the natural frequencies of a system.