2

LECTURES MODULE

W132100028
Mechanical
Vibration
Free Vibration of an Undamped
Translational System

Abstract Sub-CPMK

Describing free vibration without Sub-CPMK 2.1

damping in the translation system. Understanding the free
vibration without damping in
the translation system.

Introduction
Faculty Major Lecture Arranged by

03
Dedik Romahadi, ST., M.Sc
Engineering Mechanical Engineering
A system is said to undergo free vibration when it oscillates only under an initial
disturbance with no external forces acting afterward. Some examples are the oscillations
of the pendulum of a grandfather clock, the vertical oscillatory motion felt by a bicyclist
after hitting a road bump, and the motion of a child on a swing after an initial push.

Figure 2.1(a) shows a spring-mass system that represents the simplest possible vibratory
system. It is called a single-degree-of-freedom system, since one coordinate (x) is
sufficient to specify the position of the mass at any time. There is no external force applied
to the mass; hence the motion resulting from an initial disturbance will be free vibration.
Since there is no element that causes dissipation of energy during the motion of the mass,
the amplitude of motion remains constant with time; it is an undamped system. In actual
practice, except in a vacuum, the amplitude of free vibration diminishes gradually over
time, due to the resistance offered by the surrounding medium (such as air). Such
vibrations are said to be damped. The study of the free vibration of undamped and
damped single-degree-of-freedom systems is fundamental to the understanding of more
advanced topics in vibrations.

Several mechanical and structural systems can be idealized as single-degree-of- freedom

systems. In many practical systems, the mass is distributed, but for a simple analysis, it
can be approximated by a single point mass. Similarly, the elasticity of the system, which
may be distributed throughout the system, can also be idealized by a single spring. For
the cam-follower system shown in Fig. 1.39, for example, the various masses were
replaced by an equivalent mass 1meq2 in Example 1.12. The elements of the follower
system (pushrod, rocker arm, valve, and valve spring) are all elastic but can be reduced to
a single equivalent spring of stiffness keq. For a simple analysis, the cam-follower system
can thus be idealized as a single-degree-of-freedom spring-mass system, as shown in
Fig. 2.2.

Figure 2.1 A spring-mass system in horizontal position.

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 Figure 2.2 Equivalent spring mass system for the cam-follower system of Fig. 1.39.

Figure 2.3 The space needle (structure). (RG/Fotolia)

Similarly, the structure shown in Fig. 2.3 can be considered a cantilever beam that is fixed
at the ground. For the study of transverse vibration, the top mass can be considered a
point mass and the supporting structure (beam) can be approximated as a spring to obtain
the single-degree-of-freedom model shown in Fig. 2.4. The building frame shown in Fig.
2.5(a) can also be idealized as a spring-mass system, as shown in Fig. 2.5(b). In this

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case, since the spring constant k is merely the ratio of force to deflection, it can be
determined from the geometric and material properties of the columns. The mass of the
idealized system is the same as that of the floor if we assume the mass of the columns to
be negligible.

Figure 2.4 Modeling of tall structure as spring-mass system.

Figure 2.5 Idealization of a building frame.

Free Vibration of an undamped

translational System
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Equation of motion using newton’s Second law of motion

Using Newton’s second law of motion, in this section we will consider the derivation of the
equation of motion. The procedure we will use can be summarized as follows:
1. Select a suitable coordinate to describe the position of the mass or rigid body in
the system. Use a linear coordinate to describe the linear motion of a point mass
or the centroid of a rigid body, and an angular coordinate to describe the angular
motion of a rigid body.
2. Determine the static equilibrium configuration of the system and measure the
displacement of the mass or rigid body from its static equilibrium position.
3. Draw the free-body diagram of the mass or rigid body when a positive
displacement and velocity are given to it. Indicate all the active and reactive forces
acting on the mass or rigid body.
4. Apply Newton’s second law of motion to the mass or rigid body shown by the free-
body diagram. Newton’s second law of motion can be stated as follows:

The rate of change of momentum of a mass is equal to the force acting on it.

Thus, if mass m is displaced a distance when acted upon by a resultant force in

the same direction, Newton’s second law of motion gives

If mass m is constant, this equation reduces to

where

is the acceleration of the mass. Equation (2.1) can be stated in words as Resultant force
on the mass = mass * acceleration
For a rigid body undergoing rotational motion, Newton’s law gives

where is the resultant moment acting on the body and and are the

resulting angular displacement and angular acceleration, respectively. Equation (2.1), or

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(2.2), represents the equation of motion of the vibrating system.
The procedure is now applied to the undamped single-degree-of-freedom system shown
in Fig. 2.1(a). Here the mass is supported on frictionless rollers and can have

translatory motion in the horizontal direction. When the mass is displaced a distance +x
from its static equilibrium position, the force in the spring is kx, and the free-body diagram
of the mass can be represented as shown in Fig. 2.1(c). The application of Eq. (2.1) to
mass m yields the equation of motion

Equation of motion using other methods

As stated in Section 1.6, the equations of motion of a vibrating system can be derived
using several methods. The applications of D’Alembert’s principle, the principle of virtual
displacements, and the principle of conservation of energy are considered in this section.

D’Alembert’s Principle. The equations of motion, Eqs. (2.1) and (2.2), can be rewritten as

These equations can be considered equilibrium equations provided that and

are treated as a force and a moment, respectively. This fictitious force (or moment) is
known as the inertia force (or inertia moment) and the artificial state of equilibrium implied
by Eq. (2.4a) or (2.4b) is known as dynamic equilibrium. This principle, implied in Eq.
(2.4a) or (2.4b), is called D’Alembert’s principle. Applying it to the system shown in Fig.
2.1(c) yields the equation of motion:

Principle of Virtual Displacements. The principle of virtual displacements states that “if a
system that is in equilibrium under the action of a set of forces is subjected to a virtual
displacement, then the total virtual work done by the forces will be zero.” Here the virtual
displacement is defined as an imaginary infinitesimal displacement given instantaneously.
It must be a physically possible displacement that is compatible with the constraints of the
system. The virtual work is defined as the work done by all the forces, including the inertia

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forces for a dynamic problem, due to a virtual displacement.

Consider a spring-mass system in a displaced position as shown in Fig. 2.6(a), where x

denotes the displacement of the mass. Figure 2.6(b) shows the free-body diagram of the
mass with the reactive and inertia forces indicated. When the mass is given a virtual
displacement dx, as shown in Fig. 2.6(b), the virtual work done by each force can be
computed as follows:

Figure 2.6 Mass under virtual displacement.

When the total virtual work done by all the forces is set equal to zero, we obtain

Since the virtual displacement can have an arbitrary value, , Eq. (2.5) gives the
equation of motion of the spring-mass system as

Principle of Conservation of Energy. A system is said to be conservative if no energy

is lost due to friction or energy-dissipating nonelastic members. If no work is done on a
conservative system by external forces (other than gravity or other potential forces), then
the total energy of the system remains constant. Since the energy of a vibrating system is
partly potential and partly kinetic, the sum of these two energies remains constant. The
kinetic energy T is stored in the mass by virtue of its velocity, and the potential energy U is
stored in the spring by virtue of its elastic deformation. Thus the principle of conservation
of energy can be expressed as

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Equation of motion of a Spring-mass System in Vertical position

Consider the configuration of the spring-mass system shown in Fig. 2.7(a). The mass
hangs at the lower end of a spring, which in turn is attached to a rigid support at its upper
end. At rest, the mass will hang in a position called the static equilibrium position, in which
the upward spring force exactly balances the downward gravitational force on the mass. In
this position the length of the spring is l0 + dst, where dst is the static deflection—the
elongation due to the weight W of the mass m. From Fig. 2.7(a), we find that, for static
equilibrium,

where g is the acceleration due to gravity. Let the mass be deflected a distance +x from
its static equilibrium position; then the spring force is , as shown in Fig. 2.7(c).
The application of Newton’s second law of motion to mass m gives

Notice that Eqs. (2.3) and (2.10) are identical. This indicates that when a mass moves in a
vertical direction, we can ignore its weight, provided we measure x from its static
equilibrium position.

Note: Equation (2.10), the equation of motion of the system shown in Fig. 2.7, can also be

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derived using D’Alembert’s principle, the principle of virtual displacements, or the principle
of conservation of energy. If we use the latter, for example, we note that the expression
for the kinetic energy, T, remains the same as Eq. (2.7). However, the expression for the
potential energy, U, is to be derived by considering the weight of the mass. For this we
note that the spring force at static equilibrium position (x = 0) is mg. When the spring
deflects by an amount x, its potential energy is given by (see Fig. 2.7(d)):

Figure 2.7 A spring-mass system in vertical position.

Furthermore, the potential energy of the system due to the change in elevation of the
mass (note that x is downward) is mgx. Thus the net potential energy of the system about
the static equilibrium position is given by

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Since the expressions of T and U remain unchanged, the application of the principle of
conservation of energy gives the same equation of motion, Eq. (2.3).

Solution

The solution of Eq. (2.3) can be found by assuming

where C and s are constants to be determined. Substitution of Eq. (2.11) into Eq. (2.3)
gives

Since C cannot be zero, we have

Equation (2.12) is called the auxiliary or the characteristic equation corresponding to the
differential Eq. (2.3). The two values of s given by Eq. (2.13) are the roots of the
characteristic equation, also known as the eigenvalues or the characteristic values of the
problem. Since both values of s satisfy Eq. (2.12), the general solution of Eq. (2.3) can be
expressed as

where A1 and A2 are new constants. The constants C1 and C2 or A1 and A2 can be
determined from the initial conditions of the system. Two conditions are to be specified to
evaluate these constants uniquely. Note that the number of conditions to be specified is
the same as the order of the governing differential equation. In the present case, if the
values of displacement x(t) and velocity are specified as x0 and at t =
0, we have, from Eq. (2.16),

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Hence A1 = x0 and . Thus the solution of Eq. (2.3) subject to the initial
conditions of Eq. (2.17) is given by

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References
1. S. S. Rao, Mechanical Vibrations Sixth Edition in SI Units. Pearson, 2018.
2. A. R. Mohanty, Machinery condition monitoring: Principles and practices. CRC
Press, 2015.
3. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfqwi9TYj9V84uPoS9gJ2Imkw2qLDYv_F

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