Structural Dynamics for Civil Engineers – SDOF Systems

Dr. Riya Catherine George

Department of Civil Engineering
Hiroshima University, Japan
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture – 08
Examples

Welcome back to the Structural Dynamics course. In the last week we have learned how
dynamic analysis is different from static analysis, we learned how to formulate an
equation of motion, we also learnt the responses of free vibrations, we learnt undamped
and viscously damped free vibrations. So, in this week initially we will solve a few
example problems after that we will explore coulomb damped free vibrations later we
will learn forced vibrations. So, now let us move on to example problems.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

Now, let us formulate the equation of motion of this system, we have a mass, a damper
and a spring, a dynamic force p t is acting on this mass. So, for this system because of
the self rate the system will have a static displacement. So, the displaced configuration of
the system under its own weight is this, d st is the static displacement of this system and
X is the displacement of this mass relative to its static equilibrium position, X t is the
total displacement of this mass. So, X t will be equal to x plus d st.
Now, let us draw the free body diagram of this mass. So, a dynamic force p t is acting
downwards weight of the system is equal to mass times gravitational acceleration is also
acting downwards. The damping force is acting upwards and it is equal to c times x dot t
the total velocity and this we also have a spring force which is equal to k times x d so, k
times x plus d st.

So, now, we can write the total force acting on this body in vertical direction. So, the
unbalanced force in vertical direction is equal to p t plus weight that is mg minus k x
minus k d st minus c x dot t, and this sum is equal to mass times the acceleration of this
body, the total acceleration.

So, we also know that mg that is the weight of the body is equal to k times the static
displacement. And we can find out from this relation that x double dot t will be equal to
x double dot because d st is a static displacement which does not vary with time and also
we have x dot t would be equal to x dot.

So, we can rewrite this equation like this m x double dot plus c x dot plus k x is equal to
p t.

So, mg and minus k d st cancel out and we have this equation of motion. So, if you look
at this equation of motion, this is in terms of x and its derivatives so; that means, x is the
displacement of this mass relative to its static equilibrium position. So, if you write the
equation of motion relative to the static equilibrium position, we will not have any
weight term in the equation of motion.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:44)

Now, let us look into another system and write the equation of motion. The next system
has a lumped mass m and a stiffener k this does not have any damping and the system is
affected by a ground displacement Xg. The displacement of this mass relative to the
support is indicated as X and the total displacement of this mass has indicated as X t.

So, we know that X t is equal to X plus Xg. Now, let us write the equation of motion. So,
if you consider this mass there is only a spring force acting on that mass. So, if X is
considered positive in that direction. So, the spring force will be in this direction. So, it
will be minus k X t. So, that is the force acting on this mass and this should be equal to
mass times acceleration. So, that is given by Newton’s law. So, this is our equation of
motion we can rearrange the term it becomes m x double dot t plus k X is equal to 0. We
know that X t is X plus X t. So, we can expand this term. So, we have m x double dot
plus k X is equal to minus m x double dot g that is the ground acceleration.

So, the ground displacement at the support is equivalent to having an effective dynamic
force acting on this mass and the effective force is equal to minus mass times the ground
acceleration. So, this is how earthquake affects a structure. So, earthquake is a ground
acceleration or ground displacement. So, that would be equivalent to having an external
dynamic force on this mass and the value of that force will be equal to minus mass time’s
ground acceleration.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:16)

The next example is of torsional vibration. So, we have a rigid disk of mass m mounted
on a flexible shaft. So, this is a rigid disk which has a mass m and it is mounted on this
flexible shaft with diameter d. Neglecting the weight of the shaft and neglecting damping
derive the equation of free torsional vibration of the disk. The shear modulus of rigidity
of the shaft is G. So, we can neglect the damping in the system and we can treat the shaft
as massless. So, this just offer some stiffness to the system and the disk has some mass.
So, this is a undamped free vibration system. So, here it is torsional vibration.

So, let us draw the free body diagram of this disk. So, so far we have been dealing with
systems where the mass was lumped, it was concentrated. So, this is an example where
the masses distributed the disk has some dimensions some radius and some thickness.
So, the mass will be equally distributed across this disk. So, masses distributed here.

So, let us go back to the free body diagram. So, if theta is taken positive in this direction,
we can write the restoring force. In this case the restoring torque is equal to the torsional
stiffness of this shaft multiplied by the angular displacement that is this angle theta. So,
the value of this torsional stiffness of the shaft is equal to GJ by L, G is the shear
modulus and L is the length and J is the second moment of area. You would have learned
this expressions in the mechanics of solids course. So, the restoring torque can be
expressed like this.

So, now we can write the equation of motion using Newton’s second law which says
unbalanced force, in this case that is equal to the torque minus fs that should be equal to
the inertia. So, that is if it was a translational displacement this would have been equal to
mass times translational acceleration.

So, here this is a distributed mass and we are also talking about angular displacement.
So, this will be the unbalanced force will be equal to angular acceleration multiplied by I
naught which is the mass moment of inertia of this disk. So, for disk like this the mass
moment of inertia is equal to m R square by 2, where R is the radius of the disk. So,
minus fs is equal to mass moment of inertia times angular acceleration.

where

So, now, let us see what is the value of this torque. So, the torque fs is equal to GJ by L
that is the torsional stiffness of the shaft multiplied by the angular displacement that is
theta. J is the second moment of area and for this shaft it is equal to pi d to the power 4
by 32, d is the diameter of this shaft.

where

So, now we can calculate this torque and the mass moment of inertia, we have the
dimensions of this structure. So, now, we can write this equation of motion as I naught
theta double dot plus GJ by L theta is equal to 0 this is the equation of motion. We can
substitute the value of mass moment of inertia and the second moment of area and we get
the expression for our equation of motion as this.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:30)

Let us do one more example. In this example an automobile is crudely idealized as a

lumped mass m supported by a spring and a damper, and this automobile travels at a
constant speed v over a road which has some roughness. So, the roughness of this road
can be expressed as a function of X and X is the position of this vehicle on the road.

So, the roughness is represented by a function u g X we have to derive the equation of

motion of this system. So, this single degree of freedom system is getting a ground
displacement u g at each instant as the vehicle is moving over this road this u g changes.
So, this is equivalent to a displacement from the; displacement of the support of this
single degree of freedom system. So, let us try to solve this.

So, we have this mass connected to the spring and the damper and it moves with a speed
v. So, when it moves it goes up and down and that roughness is given as u g X. The
displacement of this mass is represented by the variable u t. So, that would be the total
displacement of this mass and the displacement of this mass relative to the base is u t
minus u g; so, the total displacement minus the displacement of the base.

Now, let us draw the free body diagram of this mass. So, this is the mass. So, when the
mass is moved in this direction there will be restoring force in the opposite direction. So,
we have spring force acting in this direction and damping force acting in this direction
and there will be inertia force also in this direction.
So, now, let us write the equilibrium equation. So, that would be inertia force plus spring
force plus damping force is equal to 0. So, what does inertia force? We have learned that
inertia force is equal to mass times the acceleration of the mass that is mass times u t
double dot this is the acceleration.

Now, let us see the damping force. So, the damping coefficient is c. So, damping force
would be c multiplied by the velocity of this mass. So, the velocity would be the velocity
relative to the base. So, that would be u t minus u g dot, the spring force would be k
multiplied by the relative displacement. So, that is u t minus u g and that should be equal
to 0.

So, now, we can rearrange this terms. So, m u t double dot plus c u t dot plus k u t is
equal to take these terms on to the right hand side that would be c u g dot plus k u g and
it is given that u g is a function of X and what is X, we know that this automobile is
moving with a velocity v.

So, what will be the position of this velocity at each instant? That will be the velocity
multiplied by the time. So, we can replace this variable x by v t that is velocity multiplied
by time. So, the right hand side becomes c u g dot v t its function of v t and k u g Vt. So,
v is just a constant. So, this equation will become c v u g dot that will be a function of t
and k v u g t. So, this is the equation of motion of this system.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:36)

(Refer Slide Time: 17:41)

Now, let us look into some free vibration examples. So, in the first example we have a
wooden block connected to a spring and a bullet is fired into this block. The bullet has
some mass and velocity this bullet gets embedded into this block, we have to find out the
resulting motion of the block. So, what happens when this bullet gets fired into this
block? So, the bullet was traveling with some velocity and it has a mass. So, when it hits
this wooden block the both the masses they will move together with some new velocity.
So, by firing a mass a bullet which has some mass into this wooden block means we are
giving some initial velocity to this wooden block. We will find out how much is the
initial velocity and using that we have to find out the resulting motion of this block. So,
let us see how to solve this. So, in this question, the weight of the block is given; weight
of the bullet is given the stiffness of the spring and the velocity of the bullet are also
given.

Now, let us calculate. The mass of the block is calculated as the weight which is given
divided by gravitational acceleration. So, you will get the mass and the mass of the bullet
is also found like this weight is given divided by g you get m naught and stiffness is
already given.

So, now, we have to find out the initial velocity of the block. So, how do we calculate it?
We can do that using the conservation of momentum. So, the momentum of the system
before and after the impact should be same. So, before the impact only the bullet was
moving with some velocity v naught. So, the momentum is equal to m naught v naught
and that should be equal to the momentum after impact. So, after impact this mass gets
embedded into it. So, the total mass will be m plus m naught and it will move with a new
velocity u dot naught. So, we can find out what is that initial velocity.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:22)

So, that would be m naught v naught by the total mass.

So, if you solve this you will get the initial velocity. So, after the impact the mass of our
system changes the mass becomes m plus m naught and the stiffness of the spring does
not change it is same as the previous.

So, we can calculate the natural frequency as root of k by the new mass that is m plus m
naught.

And we just calculated the initial condition in the initial velocity we just calculated initial
velocity is this much to do this and the initial displacement of the system of the wooden
block was 0. So, the initial displacement is 0.

So, using these two initial conditions we can calculate the resultant motion of the
wooden block that is u t is equal to u naught dot by omega n sin omega n t.

We know that for this free vibration, the response is of the form a cos omega n t plus b
sin omega n t and if we use the initial conditions we can find out a and b, and a is equal
to the initial displacement here the initial displacement was 0. So, we do not have that
cos omega n t term. So, the total response is equivalent to b that is u naught dot by
omega n sin omega n t. So, we can substitute these values and write the resultant motion
of the block in this format, that would be in the unit inches.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:21)

In the next example we have a packaging with an instrument inside it. So, this is an
instrument and it is packed in a box and this instrument with this mass m is restrained by
springs of total stiffness k by 2. So, there is one string of k by 2 stiffness above this
instrument and another one below this instrument. And, mass and mass of the instrument
and this stiffness of the springs are given, and this box this container is accidentally
dropped from a height of 3 feet above the ground. So, this box was dropped from 3 feet,
we have to calculate a few parameter of this system.

So, first let us calculate the initial displacement and velocity of this system. So, when
this mass is supported by the springs because of the weight, this spring will get
compressed a little and this spring will get extended by some amount and that would be
proportional to the weight of this mass weight of this instrument. So, how much that
deflection would be the static deflection that we can calculate by the formula m g that is
the weight of the instrument divided by the stiffness. So, we can calculate that static
deflection. So, that would be the initial displacement of this system when this gets
dropped.

So, the initial displacement that is u naught is equal to mg by k, we can calculate the
value of it. Now, what will be the initial velocity? So, this package is dropped from a
height. So, when it was before dropping it had some potential energy; so, when it is
being dropped that potential energy will become converted to kinetic energy. So, this
will get some velocity.

So, we have learnt in previous courses that that velocity will be equal to minus root 2 g
h, the potential energy before dropping is m g h and that will be converted to kinetic
energy. So, that is half m v square. So, if you solve it we can find this expression for the
velocity. So, using this value you can calculate the initial velocity.

So, now let us calculate the natural frequency, the stiffness is given and the mass is also
given. So, natural frequency is equal to root of k by mass. So, that is kg by weight. So,
you can calculate this value as well.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:51)

Next we will calculate the deformation of this system. So, you have know the initial
conditions, we know the natural frequency. So, you can calculate the displacement as a
cos omega n t plus b sin omega t all these values are known. So, you can substitute and
get the expression for the displacement of the instrument and you can calculate the
maximum deformation as square root of this term square plus this term square. So, you
can calculate the maximum deformation of the instrument inside the package.

So, if we know the maximum deformation we can also calculate the maximum velocity
or even maximum acceleration. So, let us calculate maximum acceleration. So, if this is
the displacement what is the acceleration? If you differentiate it twice you will get
acceleration. So, if you differentiate it twice, what will happen? You will get a similar
expression with omega n square also as a coefficient.

So acceleration, maximum acceleration is equal to the maximum displacement multiplied

by omega n square, we know the value of omega n. So, we can find the maximum
acceleration as well just substitute the value and get the acceleration of the instrument.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:41)

Now, let us move on to damped free vibration examples.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:46)

The stiffness and damping properties of a mass spring damper system are to be
determined by a free vibration test; the mass is given as m is equal to 0.1 pound second
square per inch. In this test the mass is displaced by 1 inch by a hydraulic jack and then
suddenly released. At the end of the 20 complete cycles the time is 3 seconds and the
amplitude is 0.2 inches. Determine the stiffness and damping coefficients.

So, in this the mass was displaced by 1 inch and then it was released; that means, the
initial displacement to the system is 1 inch and it was just released, the mass was just
released there was no impact or anything so, the initial velocity is 0. And we also know
the amplitude of the motion at 20 cycles and we also know the time taken for twenty
cycles. So, we can calculate the damping ratio and natural frequencies.

We learned about logarithmic decrement. So, what is logarithmic decrement? It is the

natural logarithm of the ratio of amplitudes at different cycles divided by the number of
cycles. So, this is the logarithmic decrement. And the damping ratio zeta can be
calculated as 1 by 2 pi of logarithmic decrement. And this is valid when the damping
ratio is very small the damping ratio is very high we have to consider the square root of 1
minus zeta squared term as well, but if the damping ratio is small we can calculate it like
this.
So, here we know 1 by 2 pi j is equal to 20 here. So, we can take j as 20 because we
know the information at the first cycle and after 20 cycles. So, u 1 is equal to our initial
displacement because that is the amplitude of the first cycle and u j plus 1 is the
amplitude after 20 cycles that is given as 0.2. So, you can calculate the value of zeta and
it is we get it as 0.0128 that is 1.28 percentage. So, that is very small damping since the
damping is very small the assumption that we made here to calculate the zeta is valid.
So, we assumed that damping is 0 is small. So, it is actually small. So, the assumption is
correct, if it was not small then we had to calculate it using the exact formula.

So, now we can calculate the natural frequency. So, to do that, we will find out the
natural period first. So, this system is a mass spring damper system so, it will have a
damped natural period. So, we can calculate the damped natural period using the time
taken for 20 cycles.

So, it is given that 3 seconds was the time taken for 20 complete cycles. So, period is
nothing, but the time taken for 1 cycle. So, the damped natural period would be 3 by 20
that is 0.15 and we just calculated the damping ratio and found that the damping is very
less. So, in such cases we can consider that the natural period is equal to the damped
natural period. So, the natural period will also be equal to 0.15 seconds.

So, we can calculate the natural circular frequency omega n that would be 1 pi by T n.
So, 2 pi by 0.15 is equal to 41.89. Now, we will try to find out the stiffness and the
damping coefficients.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:00)

So, the natural frequency square is equal to k by m so, k is equal to omega n square m.

So, we know the natural frequency we know the mass so, we can calculate the stiffness
and we know that the critical damping coefficient is equal to 2 m omega n. So, knowing
omega n and the mass we can calculate the critical damping coefficient. We know that
the damping ratio zeta is equal to the damping coefficient divided by the critical damping
coefficient.

So, the damping coefficient will be equal to zeta critical damping coefficient. So, you
have calculated the zeta already and you can multiply it with the critical damping
coefficient we get the damping coefficient.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:58)

So, in the next problem we have a machine weighing 250 pounds and is mounted on a
supporting system consisting of four springs and four dampers. The vertical deflection of
the support system under the weight of the machine is measured as 0.8 inches. The
dampers are designed to reduce the amplitude of vertical vibration to one-eighth of the
initial amplitude after two complete cycles of free vibration. Find the following
properties of the system; the undamped natural frequency, the damping ratio and the
damped natural frequency. Comment on the effect of damping on natural frequency.

So, it is given the weight of the system and it is also given the deflection of the
supporting system under the weight. So, if you know the weight and the deflection we
can find the stiffness of the supporting system. So, the weight is the force acting on that
springs. So, it is getting deflected because of this force so, the stiffness is the force by
deflection. So, the weight is 250 pounds, so this would be 250 by the deflection given as
0.8. So, we can calculate the stiffness of the system. weight is given. So, we can
calculate the mass of the system.
So, masses read by gravitational acceleration. So, now, we know the mass and the
stiffness. So, we can calculate the natural frequency of the system which is equal to
square root of k by m.

The next thing we have to find out is the damping ratio and it is given the amplitudes of
two cycles, right; it is given that the dampers are designed to reduce the amplitude of
vertical vibration to one-eighth of the initial amplitude. We can calculate the damping
ratio using logarithmic decrement.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:38)

So, as we assumed in the previous example initially we can assume that the damping is
small. So, we can equate the logarithmic decrement to 2 j pi zeta this is similar to what
we did in the previous problem and we know that the amplitude becomes one-eighth
after 2 cycles. So, at the first cycle it is u naught after 2 cycles it is u naught by 8. So,
logarithm of 8 is equal to 2 and j is equal to 2 because this amplitude is after 2 cycles and
pi zeta which gives the value of zeta is equal to 0.165; that means 16.5 percent. So, that
is very high damping.

≈ 2jπξ
So, since this damping is very high we cannot make this assumption as the damping is
small. So, now, we will recalculate the value of zeta using the exact expression for
logarithmic decrement that is 2 j pi zeta divided by square root of 1 minus zeta square.
So, from this we can evaluate the value of zeta solving this equation.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:13)

So, we get zeta is equal to 0.163, if you solve the previous equation we will get the value
of zeta. Now, we have to calculate the natural frequency of the damped system. So, that
would be equal to omega n that is the natural frequency multiplied by square root of 1
minus zeta square. So, we can substitute the value of zeta here and get the value of
omega D.

So, how omega n is different from omega D? So, the zeta is not a very small value here.
So, this term is less than 1. So, omega D will be less than omega n. So, the damping
decreases the natural frequency. So, because of the damping the frequency of the system
decreases.