CE 3012 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS III

TUTORIAL 1
Due on 28th Feb, 2018
1. A single story building is idealized as a rigid girder supported by weightless columns as
shown in Fig. 1. In order to evaluate the dynamic properties of this structure, a free
vibration test is done by displacing the roof system (rigid girder) laterally by a hydraulic
jack and then suddenly released. The force needed to displace the girder by 5 mm was 90
kN. After the instantaneous release of the force, the maximum displacement on the first
return is only 4 mm and the period of this displacement cycle is found to be 1.4 sec..
Determine the following dynamic behavioural properties of the structure;
a) Lumped mass of the girder
b) Undamped frequency of vibration
c) Damping ratio
d) Damping coefficient
e) Damped frequency of vibration
f) Amplitude after 6 cycles

Fig.1
2. A free vibration test is conducted on an empty elevated water tank shown in Fig. 2. A
cable attached to the tank applies a force of 75 kN and pulls the tank by 50 mm. The
cable is suddenly cut and the resulting free vibration is recorded. At the end of four
complete cycles, the time is 2 sec and the amplitude is 25 mm. From thes data, compute
the following dynamic properties.
a. Damping ratio
b. Natural period of undamped vibration
c. Lateral stiffness of the structure
d. Lumped mass
 e. Damping coefficient
f. Number of cycles required for the displacement amplitude to decrease to 5 mm.
The weight of water required to fill the tank is 350 kN. Determine the natural vibration
period and damping ratio of the structure with the tank full.
The supporting system of the tank is enlarged with the objective of increasing its seismic
resistance. The lateral stiffness of the modified system is doubled. If the damping
coefficient is unaffected by this process, determine the natural period and the damping
ratio.

Fig. 2

3. a) Consider undamped forced vibration of a SDOF system of mass m and stiffness k. The
total response will be given by

with usual notations. Sketch the normalized response (v(t)/vst) with time t/T for
𝛽 = 0.2, 𝑣0 = 0.5𝑣𝑠𝑡 , 𝑣̇ 0 = 𝜔𝑣𝑠𝑡 where T is the period of harmonic loading and vst is the
steady state response p0/k.
b) Now consider the response of an underdamped structure to harmonic loading and
sketch the normalized response (v(t)/vst) again with time t/T for
𝛽 = 0.2, 𝜉 = 0.05, 𝑣0 = 0.5𝑣𝑠𝑡 , 𝑣̇ 0 = 𝜔𝑣𝑠𝑡 where T is the period of natural vibration and
vst is the steady state response p0/k.
Discuss the effect of damping on forced vibration.