CHAPTER # 3

Harmonically Excited
Vibration

Harmonically Excited Vibration

This chapter deals with the response of single-degree-of-freedom systems

subjected to harmonic excitations.
A mechanical or structural system is said to undergo forced vibration whenever
external energy is supplied to the system during vibration.
External energy can be supplied through either an applied force or an imposed
displacement excitation.
The applied force or displacement excitation may be harmonic, nonharmonic but
periodic, nonperiodic, or random in nature.
The response of a system to a harmonic excitation is called harmonic

response.
The response of a dynamic system to suddenly applied nonperiodic excitations is
called transient response.
In this chapter, we shall consider the dynamic response of a single-degree-offreedom system under harmonic excitations of the form

Harmonically Excited Vibration

Equation of Motion

If a force F(t) acts on a viscously damped spring-mass system as

shown, the equation of motion can be obtained:
Since this equation is nonhomogeneous, its general solution x(t) is
given by the sum of the homogeneous solution (), and the
particular solution .
The homogeneous solution (), is the solution of the
homogeneous equation
This solution represents the free vibration of the system and was
discussed in Chapter 2.
This free vibration dies out with time for damped system under any
of the three possible conditions of damping (underdamping, critical
damping, and overdamping).

Harmonically Excited Vibration

Equation of Motion
Thus for damped system the general solution eventually reduces
to the particular solution which represents the steady-state
vibration.
The part of the motion that dies out due to damping (the freevibration part) is called transient.
In this chapter, except for undamped
system, we ignore the transient
motion and derive only the
particular solution, which represents
the steady-state response, under
harmonic forcing functions.

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Before studying the response of a damped system, we consider an undamped system
subjected to a harmonic force, for the sake of simplicity.
It the applied force is:

The homogeneous solution of this equation is given by

Because the exciting force F(t) is harmonic, the particular solution
is also harmonic and has the same frequency
Thus we assume a solution in the form
By substituting and solving for X, we obtain

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Thus the total solution becomes
Using the initial conditions

The maximum amplitude X

can be expressed as
The quantity is the ratio of the dynamic to the
static amplitude of motion and is called the magnification
factor, amplification factor, or amplitude ratio.

The variation of the amplitude ratio , with the

frequency ratio =
From this figure, the response of the system can be
identified to be of three types.

Magnification factor of an undamped system

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Case 1
When
The denominator of

is positive and the response is

given.

The harmonic response of the

system is said to be in phase
with the external force.

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Case 2
When
The denominator of
is negative and the steadystate solution can be expressed
as
where the amplitude of motion
X is redefined to be a positive
quantity as
Since and F(t) have opposite signs, the response is said to be 180 out of phase with
the external force.
Further, as
Thus the response of the system to a harmonic force of very high frequency is close to zero.

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Case 3
When
The amplitude X becomes infinite.
This condition, for which the forcing frequency is equal to
the natural frequency of the system is called resonance.
To find the response for
this condition,
Since the last term of this equation takes an indefinite form for = ,
we apply LHospitals rule to evaluate the limit of this term:
It can be seen that at
resonance, x(t) increases
indefinitely.
The last term is shown.
The amplitude of the
response can be seen to
increase linearly with time.

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Total Response

The total response of the system, can also be expressed as

Thus the complete motion can be expressed as the sum of two cosine curves of different
frequencies.
<

>

Response of an Undamped System Under Harmonic Force

Beating Phenomenon

If the forcing frequency is close to, but not exactly equal to, the natural frequency of the
system, a phenomenon known as beating may occur.
In this kind of vibration, the amplitude builds up and then diminishes in a regular pattern.
To explain the phenomenon of beating consider the solution for

Let the forcing frequency be slightly less than the natural frequency:

Since is small, its period is large.

The period of beating
The frequency of beating

Example
A spring-mass system, with a spring stiffness of 5,000 N/m, is subjected to a harmonic
force of magnitude 30 N and frequency 20 Hz. The mass is found to vibrate with an
amplitude of 0.2 m. Assuming that vibration starts from rest (0 = 0 = 0) determine the
mass of the system.

Solution
The vibration response of the system

which can be rewritten as

= 0.2976

Response of a Damped System Under Harmonic Force

If the forcing function is given by
The particular solution is also expected to be
harmonic; we assume it in the form
Where the constants and represent the amplitude and phase angle of
the response, respectively. By substituting

Using the trigonometric relations

And equating the coefficients of cos and sin on both sides of the resulting
equation, we obtain
cos =
Solving for and

Substituting, we obtain the

particular solution

tan 2 + 1

Response of a Damped System Under Harmonic Force

The figure shows typical plots of the forcing function and (steady-state) response.
Using
The amplitude ratio will be

The quantity = is called the magnification factor,

amplification factor, or amplitude ratio.

And the phase angle

= 2

Response of a Damped System Under Harmonic Force

The variations of = with the frequency ratio and the damping ratio are shown

For an undamped system ( = 0)

Any amount of damping ( > 0) reduces the
magnification factor (M) for all values of the forcing
frequency, compared to undamped system.
For any specified value of r, a higher value of damping
reduces the value of M.
For constant force (when = 0 ), the value of = 1
The value of = is
The amplitude of forced vibration becomes smaller with increasing values of the forcing frequency
The reduction in M in the presence of damping is very significant at or near resonance.
For = 1 2, = 0 when = 0. For > 1 2 the graph of monotonically decreases with
increasing values of .

Response of a Damped System Under Harmonic Force

For 0 < < 1

2, the maximum value of occurs when (see Problem 3.32)

This equation can be used for the experimental determination of the damping
present in the system.

The variations of with the frequency ratio

and the damping ratio are shown
For an undamped system ( = 0)
For > 0 and 0 < < 1
For > 0 and > 1

For > 0 and = 1

For > 0 and large value of

Response of a Damped System Under Harmonic Force

Total Response
The complete solution is given by

= +

Thus, for an underdamped system, we have

Homework # 3

3.5 , 3.15 , 3.25 , 3.26 , 3.35 , 3.48