THEORY

Vibratory systems comprise means for storing potential energy (spring),

means for storing kinetic energy (mass or inertia), and means by which the
energy is gradually lost (damper). The vibration of a system involves the
alternating transfer of energy between its potential and kinetic forms. In a
damped system, some energy is dissipated at each cycle of vibration and must
be replaced from an external source if a steady vibration is to be maintained.
Although a single physical structure may store both kinetic and potential energy,
and may dissipate energy.
The simpliest type of vibrational motion is a mass moving back and forth
horizontally due to a spring. To start the motion, the system is given either an
initial displacement or velocity (or both). At any time, a force equilibrium and
acceleration diagram can be constructed, similar to the diagram at the left.

Horizontal Mass-Spring Motion

Summing forces in the x-direction gives,
-Fs = m ax
where Fs is the force in the spring, kx. This can be changed to,
m d2x/dt2 + kx = 0
Because the basic differential equation describtion back and forth motion, it is
refered to as harmonic motion.
Similiarly, mass-spring motion in the vertical direction can also be
modeled as a second order differential equation. Let the distance y represent the
distance from the equilibrium position with gravity. The motion is started with an
initial displacement and/or velocity.

Vertical Mass-Spring Motion

Let us consider a spring-mass system as shown in Fig. 1.1. The system is

constrained to move in the vertical direction only along the axis of the spring.
Let k and m be the stiffness of the spring and the mass of the block, respectively.
Let x be the position of the mass at any instant from the equilibrium
position of the mass and it is assumed that x is positive in the downward
direction and negative in the upward direction. In the spring-mass system only
one coordinate is enough to describe the position of the mass at any time, and
hence, it is single degree-of-freedom system. Here the coordinate is x.

Fig.1.1: Spring-mass system

Fig. 1.2: Free Body diagram of the mass

The free-body diagram of the mass is shown in Fig.2. Applying DAlemberts
principle, the equation of motion of the mass can be obtained as,
(1.1)
The natural frequency of the system, n is,
(1.2)
(1.3)
Let (1.3) be the solution for this differential equation (1.1).

Initial conditions:
(1.4)
Substitution of Eq.(1.3) into Eq.(1.1) and application of Eq.(1.4) yields,

(1.5)
Time period:
The time taken to complete one cycle is,
(1.6)
Even though there is no specific damper attached to the system, there will
always be the presence of damping of very small in amount. Because of this the
response obtained from experiment always corresponds to a small amount of
damping. Let c be the damping coefficient, then the equation of motion changes
to,
(1.7)
Damping ratio ( ):
It can be defined as the ration of the damping coefficient to the critical damping
coefficient.
(1.8)

where

is the Critical damping coefficient, given by:

(1.9)

If ,

the system is said to be over-damped system.

If ,

the system is said to be critically damped system.

If ,

the system is said to be under-damped system

Following the same procedure as described above and by applying the initial
conditions, the solution of the differential equation can be obtained as.

For Over-damped system

(1.10)

Where,
and

For Critically-damped system

(1.11)

For Under-damped system

(1.12)
The damped natural frequency of vibration is given by,

Where

is the time period of the oscillation:

(1.13)
=

The motion governed by this solution is of oscillatory type whose amplitude

decreases in an exponential manner with the increase in time as shown in Fig.
1.3.

Fig. 1.3: Displacement-time plot of an under-damped system with

general initial conditions

The logarithmic decrement is given by,

(1.14)
Substituting Eq.(1.13) into Eq.(1.14),
(1.15)