Industrial Application of Undamped Mass Spring System

The most popular application of an undamped

spring mass system is to study the torsional vibration

of a

crankshaft of internal combustion engines because if

the

vibration is too much it could break the crankshaft

itself. The frequency of the vibration must match the
torsional resonant frequency of the crankshaft so that

the

flywheel is not shear-off or cause the driven belts,

gears

and attached components to fail because torsional

vibration is not controlled in a crankshaft. This
potentially damaging vibration is often controlled by a
torsional damper that is located at the front nose of the
crankshaft
Next application for undamped mass spring system is the intriguing problem of
chimney collapse. The collapse happened because designers did not consider effect of
vibration or the resonance of chimney and when wind blows across chimney during a
particular wind speed range a phenomenon called Vortex shedding happens behind the
chimney. At resonance amplitude of oscillation becomes so large that structure finally
collapses. The solution to this phenomenon is to install ring at the top of the chimney as a
vortex breaker, which will distract the flow and spoil vortex formation behind chimney.

Figure 1 : Vortex breaker on a chimney

Lastly, the application of undamped mass spring system is used in wide span
structures such as bridges, spectator stands, large stairs, and stadium roofs as well as slender
tall structures such as high rises. They tend to be easily excited to high vibration amplitudes
in one of their basic mode shapes, for example by wind or marching and jumping people.
Low natural frequencies are typical for this type of structures, due to their dimensions, as is
their low damping. With Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD), these vibrations can be reduced very
effectively.

Figure 2 : Tuned Mass Damper on a bridge