Damping

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This article is about damped harmonic oscillators. For detailed mathematical description of the harmonic oscillator including forcing and damping, see Harmonic oscillator. For damping in music, see Damping (music).

Classical mechanics

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Underdamped springmass system

In physics, damping is an effect that reduces the amplitude of oscillations in an oscillatory system (except for mass-dominated systems where 2), particularly the harmonic oscillator. This effect is linearly related to

the velocity of the oscillations. This restriction leads to a linear differential equation of motion, and a simple analytic solution. In mechanics, damping may be realized using a dashpot. This device uses the viscous drag of a fluid, such as oil, to provide a resistance that is related linearly to velocity. The damping force Fc is expressed as follows:

where c is the viscous damping coefficient, given in units of newton seconds per meter (N s/m) or simply kilograms per second. In engineering applications it is often desirable to linearize non-linear drag forces. This may by finding an equivalent work coefficient in the case of harmonic forcing. In non-harmonic cases, restrictions on the speed may lead to accurate linearization. Generally, damped harmonic oscillators satisfy the secondorder differential equation:

where 0 is the undamped angular frequency of the oscillator and is a constant called the damping ratio. The value of the damping ratio determines the behavior of the system. A damped harmonic oscillator can be:

Overdamped ( > 1): The system returns (exponentially decays) to equilibrium without oscillating. Larger values of the damping ratio return to equilibrium more slowly.

Critically damped ( = 1): The system returns to equilibrium as quickly as possible without oscillating. This is often desired for the damping of systems such as doors.

Underdamped (0 < < 1): The system oscillates (at reduced frequency compared to the undamped case) with the amplitude gradually decreasing to zero.

Undamped ( = 0): The system oscillates at its natural resonant frequency (o).

Contents
[hide]

1 Definition 2 Example: massspringdamper

2.1 System behavior

2.1.1 Critical damping ( = 1) 2.1.2 Over-damping ( > 1) 2.1.3 Under-damping (0 < 1)

3 Alternative models 4 See also 5 References 6 Books 7 External links

Definition [edit]
In physics and engineering, damping may be mathematically modelled as a force synchronous with the velocity of the object but opposite in direction to it. If such force is also proportional to the

velocity, as for a simple mechanical viscous damper (dashpot), the force may be related to the velocity by

where c is the damping coefficient, given in units of newtonseconds per meter. This force may be used as an approximation to the friction caused by drag. While friction is related to , if the velocity is restricted

a small range, this non-linear effect may be small. In such a situation, a linearized friction coefficient may be determined

which produces little error compared with the second order solution. This relationship is perfectly analogous to electrical resistance as described by Ohm's law.

Example: massspringdamper [edit]

A mass attached to a spring and damper. The damping coefficient, usually c, is represented by B in this case. The F in the diagram denotes an external force, which this example does not include.

An ideal massspringdamper system with mass m, spring constant k and viscous damper of damping coefficient c is subject to an oscillatory force

and a damping force

The values can be in any consistent system of units; for example, in SI units, m in kilograms, k in newtons per

meter, and c in newton-seconds per meter or kilograms per second. Treating the mass as a free body and applying Newton's second law, the total force Ftot on the body is

where a is the acceleration of the mass and x is the displacement of the mass relative to a fixed point of reference. Since Ftot = Fs + Fd,

This differential equation may be rearranged into

The following parameters are then defined:

The first parameter, 0, is called the (undamped) natural frequency of the system . The second parameter, , is called the damping ratio. The natural frequency represents an angular frequency, expressed in radians per second. The damping ratio is a dimensionless quantity.

The differential equation now becomes

Continuing, we can solve the equation by assuming a solution x such that:

where the parameter (gamma ) is, in general, a complex number. Substituting this assumed solution back into the differential equation gives

which is the characteristic equation. Solving the characteristic equation will give two roots, + and . The solution to the differential equation is thus[1]

where A and B are determined by the initial conditions of the system:

Syst em beh avio r [edi

t]

Ti me de pe nd en ce of the sy ste m be ha vio r on the val

ue of the da mp ing rati o , for un da mp ed (bl ue ), un de rda mp ed (gr ee n), crit ica lly da mp ed (re d), an d ov er-

da mp ed (cy an )ca se s, for zer ovel oci ty init ial co ndi tio n.

St ea dy sta te var iati

on of am plit ud e wit h fre qu en cy an d da mp ing of a dri ve ns im ple ha rm oni c os cill ato r.[2]
[3]

The behavi or of the

syste m depen ds on the relativ e values of the two funda mental param eters, the natura l freque ncy 0 and the dampi ng ratio . In particu lar, the qualita tive behavi or of the syste m depen

ds crucial ly on wheth er the qu adratic equati on for has one real solutio n, two real solutio ns, or two compl ex conjug ate solutio ns.

Criti cal dam ping ( = 1) [e

dit]
When = 1, there is a

double root (defin ed above ), which is real. The syste m is said to be criti cally damp ed. A critical ly damp ed syste m conver ges to zero as fast as possib le withou t oscilla ting. An examp le of

critical dampi ng is the do or closer seen on many hinged doors in public buildin gs. The recoil mecha nisms in most guns are also critical ly damp ed so that they return to their origina l positio

n, after the recoil due to firing, in the least possib le time. In this case, with only one root , there is in additio n to the solutio n x(t) = et a solutio n x(t) = tet:[4
]

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