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QUESTION 1
1.1 Newtons second law gives:

d 2x
Fresultant m 2
dt

F spring kx

F damper

dx
c
dt

Using vector superposition rule, we will have:

Fresultant Fspring Fdamper

d 2x
dx
m 2 kx c
dt
dt

mx kx cx
Rearranging the above equation by diving both sides by m, we will have:

d 2 x c dx k
x 0 (Which is the equation for free vibration with viscous damping).
dt 2 m dt m
Let us now recall that there are two types of frequencies in vibration problems: n (natural
angular frequency) and d (the frequency of damped vibration). The relation between
angular frequency rad / s and vHz is given by:

2v
v

1
T

Furthermore, the damped vibration d is expressed in the formula: d 1 2 n where

n is the natural angular frequency and is the damping ratio.

To find the frequency of vibration, we must work out n and .

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Therefore,

c c 2m

k
2 km 2m n
m

c
cc

c
c c
c n
2m c c 2m
So that:

2043
16.309rad / s
7.68

c c 2 km 2 2043 7.68 250.521Ns / m

c
67

0.267
cc 250.521

Hence:

d 1 2 n 1 0.2672 16.309 15.71692669rad / s

v

d 15.71692669

2.501426573Hz
2
2

We can conclude that the frequency of vibration when the mass is released is v 2.501Hz
1.2 The nature of damping is dependent on the magnitude of the damping factor .
If

< 1: under damped

= 1: critically damped
> 1: over damped

From the evidence above, we can unassumingly conclude that the nature of the
damping for the system is UNDER DAMPED

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SURNAME AND INITIALS

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1.3 An initial displacement of 48mm from the equilibrium is given. Thus:

xt 0 0.048m, that is, x0 0.048m

dx
t 0 0m / s, that is, x 0 0m / s
dt
The general solution for a differential equation of the form mx cx kx 0 will give:

xt C1e s1t C 2 e s2t

Where
2

s1, 2

c c 2 4mk c
k
c

2m
2m
m
2m

2 1 n
We will now substitute the known information into the above that will allow us to solve for the
roots s1,2 as follows:

s1, 2 2 1 n
0.267

0.2672 1 16.309

4.354 16.309 0.928711

4.354 15.716i
Hence:

s1 4.354 15.716i
s 2 4.354 15.716i
To develop the expression, we must solve for the unknown constants C1 and C2 by replacing
the known initial conditions of x0 0.048 and x 0m / s . To do so we will use the expression
for the displacement that we can differentiate and obtain another expression for the velocity
x :

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xt

C1e s1t C 2 e s2t

x t

d
C1e s1t C 2 e s2t
dt
C1 s1e s1t C 2 s 2 e s2t

Substituting with the initial conditions x0 0.048m we obtain:

x0

0.048m

0.048

C1e s10 C 2 e s2 0

0.048

C1 C 2

Also, with the initial condition x 0 0m / s we will have:

x 0

C1 s1e s10 C 2 s 2 e s2 0

C1 s1 C 2 s 2

4.354 15.716i C1 4.354 15.716i C 2

We are now having a system of two equations with two unknowns:

C1 C 2 0.048

4.354 15.716i C1 4.354 15.716i C 2 0

C 2 0.048 C1

4.354 15.716i C1 4.354 15.716i 0.048 C1 0

4.354 15.716i C1 0.208992 4.354C1 0.754368i 15.716iC1 0
4.354 15.716i C1 4.354 15.716i C1 0.208992 0.754368i
15.716i 15.716i C1 0.208992 0.754368i

C1

0.208992 0.7543i
31.432i

0.024 0.0066i
C2

0.048 0.024 0.0066i

0.024 0.0066i

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Going back to the expression, let us substitute the values of C1 and C2 thereto:

xt C1e s1t C 2 e s2t

0.024 0.0066i e 4.35415.716i t 0.024 0.0066i e 4.35415.716i t

e 4.354t 0.024 0.0066e15.716it 0.024 0.0066e 15.716it

With i 1 i 2 1 we will have:

0.024 0.006615.716it 0.024 0.0066i cos15.716t i sin15.716t

0.0024cos15.716t 0.0024sin15.716t i
0.0066cos15.716t i 0.0066sin15.716t i 2
0.024 0.006615.716it 0.024 0.0066i cos15.716t i sin15.716t
0.0024cos15.716t 0.0024sin15.716t i
0.0066cos15.716t i 0.0066sin15.716t i 2
xt e 4.354t 0.048 cos15.716t 0.0132sin15.716t i 2
e 4.354t 0.048cos15.716t 0.0132sin15.716t

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SURNAME AND INITIALS

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QUESTION 2
2.1 The displacement at any time x (t ) will be given by the expression:
2 1 t
n

xt C1e

2 1 t
n

C2e

But with a different value of damping constant c 318Ns / m and the same initial conditions,

that is, n

2043
16.309rad / s and cc 2 km 2 2043 7.68 250.521Ns / m ,
7.68

the damping ratio will give:

318
1.269
250.521

The corollary is that the new system is over-damped and will have a different vibration
reaction.

d
C1e
dt

2 1 n t

2 1 t
n

C2 e

2 1 t
n

2 1 n C1e

2 1 t
n

2 1 nC2 e

Observing that e0 = 1, the above can be simplified as:

C1 C 2 x0

2 1 n C1 2 1 n C 2 x 0

Substituting the unknown values we thus have:

C1 C 2 0.048 C 2 0.048 C1

1.269

1.2692 1 16.309C1 1.269 1.2692 1 16.309C 2 0

7.954C1 33.437C 2 0
C1 0.0629
C 2 0.0149

Noting that 2 1 n 7.954 and 2 1 n 33.437 it follows that:

xt 0.0629e 7.954t 0.0149e 33.437

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Consequently, the expression for the displacement at any time

xt 0.0629e 7.954t 0.0149e 33.437t

1.2 The displacement after 0.026 seconds will give us:

x0.026 0.0629e 7.9540.026 0.0149e 33.4370.026

0.0511481 0.006246361
0.044902539m
To find the velocity after the same time, we will implicitly differentiate the expression for the
displacement as follows:

x t

d
0.0629e 7.954t 0.0149e 33.437t
dt

0.0629 7.954e 7.954t 0.0149 33.437e 33.437t

0.5003066e 7.954t 0.4982113e 33.437t
After 0.026 second the velocity will become:

x 0.026 0.5003066e 7.9540.026 0.4982113e 33.4370.026

0.406838829 0.208859605
0.197979223m / s
In conclusion the displacement after 0.026s is 0.044902539m or 44.9mm and the velocity
after the same time is -0.197979223m/s or -197.9mm/s

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QUESTION 3
Let us first calculate the damping ratio:

c
258

1.029 1
c c 250.521

Here the system is critically damped which means that that it is defined by the equation
mx cx kx 0 and s1 s2 . We know that:

x n x0
xt e nt x0 cos 1 2 n t 0
sin 1 2 n t

1 2 n

The above cannot be directly applied in its current form since there is an indeterminate form
of

0
present in the analytical solution because:
0

lim 1 2 0
1

lim 1 2 n t 0
1

To solve this issue we will apply LHpital rule which will then give:

1
2
cos
1

1 2
n
n

sin 1 n t
2
lim
lim
1
2
1
1

1
1

1 2 2 2
2

lim n t cos 1 2 n t
1

1
2

nt

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Substituting the limits we will thus have:

x n x0
xt lime nt x0 cos 1 2 n t 0
sin 1 2 n t
1

1 2 n

x n x0
e nt x0 0
n

sin 1 2 n t
lim
1
1 2

e nt x0 x 0 n x0 t

With the known initial conditions, that is, x0 0.048m and x 0 0m / s the above expression
will become:

xt e 16.309t 0.048 0 16.309 0.048t

e 16.309t 0.048 0.782832t
The expression for displacement at any time is xt e 16.309t 0.048 0.782832t
3.2 To find the expression of the velocity, we must first differentiate the expression of the
displacement as:

x t

d 16.309t
0.048 0.782832t
e
dt

16.309e 16.309t 0.048 0.782832t 0.782832e 16.309t

0.782832e 16.309t 12.76720709te 16.309t 0.782832e 16.309t
e 16.309t 0.782832 12.7620709t 0.782832
e 16.309t 12.7620709t

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After 0.027 seconds,

The displacement will give:

x0.027 e 16.3090.027 0.048 0.782832 0.027

0.069128364e 0.440343
0.044505916
The velocity will therefore be:

x 0.027 e 16.3090.027 12.7620709 0.027

0.344575914e 0.440343
0.221843
The displacement after 0.027s is 0.044505916m or 44.505mm
The velocity after 0.027s is -0.221843m/s or -221.843mm/s

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QUESTION 4
4.1 The length of the bar is , its mass is m , and the perpendicular distance between the axis
passing through the bars centre of mass at point P and the axis about which the bar is
rotating passing through the point O is 1 so that:
4

I cm
d

1
m 2
12

4
2

1
7

I m 2 m
m 2
12
4
48

7
IO
m 2
48
From the free-body diagram, the angular acceleration will be expressed as:

d 2
2
dt
s
where is the angle, s is the the arc length subtended
R
and R is the radius. Rearranging, we have s R . In vibration problems, we only consider
But we should recall that

small displacement or rotations so this approximation is perfectly accurate. Applying this,

we will have:

s1 R1 1
s 2 R2 2
The deflection of the spring is then s1 and the velocity of the damper is then s2 where:

s2 R22
Since there is only one bar which is rigid, it follows that the bar will rotate in equal angles,
thus 1 2 and we only need one variable to describe the motion of the bar.
Consequently, we observe that:

2
3
R2
4
R1

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Knowing that the springs force is a retarding force opposite to the direction of displacement
and the damping force being the retarding force opposite to the direction of velocity, we
will have:

3
3

Fsprings k1 k 2 s 2 k1 k 2 k1 k 2
4
4

1
1

Fdamping cs1 c c
2
2

Having the forces we can now calculate the corresponding torques taking into the account
the corresponding distances between the application of the respective forces and the pivot
are:

4
1

2

D spring
Ddamper

So that:

spring Fspring Dspring k1 k 2 k1 k 2 2

16
4
4
1
2

1
2

1
4

damper Fdamper Ddamper c c 2

Applying vector superposition, we then have:

resultant spring damper

9
k1 k 2 2 1 c 2
16
4

Newtons second law will allow us to obtain:

resultant I

9
k1 k 2 2 1 c 2 7 m 2
16
4
48

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k1 k 2 2 c 2 0
The equation of the motion will be: m 2
4
48
16
9

4.2 In the special case where k1 k 2 the above equation becomes:

9
1 2
7
2
2
48 m 16 2k 4 c 0

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