Mechanics and

vibrations
Free response of system with
one Degree of Freedom (DoF)

Introduction
Systems with one DoF make possible to introduce the first important phenomenon occurring in
mechanical vibratory systems: natural pulsation, eigen frequency, damping It helps to understand
the behavior of more complex systems with additional DoF.

Theory
Mechanical systems can usually be modeled by an assembly of masses connected by flexible elements
(introducing stiffness and damping).
The mass will store kinetic energy when the stiffness will store elastic potential energy. The transfer
between the kinetic and the elastic potential energy generates the oscillations.

A system with a single DoF can be represented as shown on Figure 1.

F(t)
m: mass
x(t):displacement of the mass
m k: stiffness
c: viscous damping coefficient
x(t) F(t): external force applied on the mass

k c

Figure 1: system with 2 DoF

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If we dont take into account the gravity, we can describe the dynamic of the system with the
equation:

+ + = ( ) (1)

If we dont apply any external force the equation becomes:

+ + =0 (2)

This is a second order differential equation with constant coefficients. The solutions of this equation
can be written:

= (3)

Then:
= (4)
= (5)

Reporting (3), (4) and (5) in (2), we get:

+ + =0 (6)

The discriminant of the equation is:

= 4 (7)

The 2 roots r1 and r2 are:

= + (8)

= (9)

Finally, the solution of (2) is:

= + (10)

The expressions (8) and (9) can be written differently, using parameters easier to measure.
Lets then define 2 important characteristics of the system:
The natural pulsation (rad/s)
The damping ratio

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The natural pulsation is defined as:
= or = (11)

The damping ratio is defined as:

(12)

With cc being the critical damping canceling the discriminant (7):

0= 4 (13)

So, =2 =2 (14)

Finally, combining (12) and (14), the damping ratio can be defined as:

= (15)

=2 =2 (16)

The damping ratio depends on materials.

Here are some examples of common values:

Material Damping ratio

Metals (in elastic range) <0.01
Continuous Metal Structures 0.02 to 0.04
Auto Shock Absorbers 0.30
Rubber 0.05
Prestressed Concrete Structures 0.02 to 0.05

Taking into account (10) and (16), the 2 roots r1 and r2 as calculated in (8) and (9) can be written:

+ 1 (17)

1 (18)

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The behavior of the system clearly depends on the values of the natural pulsation and damping ratio
. The form of the solutions of the differential equation significantly changes depending on the value of
the damping ratio. We can define 3 cases:

<1: Underdamped system

The system oscillates with the amplitude gradually decreasing to zero if 0. Thats the most common
case in mechanics.

1 < 0, so we have to write:

+ (19)
(20)

With = 1

Then, the solution of the system becomes:

= + (21)

That we can also write:

= + = ( + ) (22)

= is the natural pulsation of the damped system.

The constants A, A1, A2 and can be defined from the initial conditions of the system (0)and (0).

=1: Critically damped system

The system returns to equilibrium as quickly as possible without oscillating.
This is not a really common, but an example of system is the damper of a vehicle.

In this case, the system has a unique root: = (23)

The behavior of the system is aperiodic and the solution is:

= + = ( + )
(24)
>1: Overdamped system
The system returns to equilibrium without oscillating
= + (25)

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Simulation validation and practice with LMS Amesim
Building the sketch

In sketch mode , the model of the system (Figure 3) can be built easily and fast, selecting 3
components from the mechanical library, in translation:
A mass
A spring and damper
A zero velocity source

Figure 2: Mechanical Library tree

Selecting submodels

In this example, in submodel mode , submodels can be quickly selected using the premier
submodel .

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 Figure 3: model of the system

Setting parameters
In parameter mode , we will define the following values (default values are kept for other
parameters):

Mass:
o Mass: M kg
o Initial displacement port 1: 0.1m

Figure 4: Definition of the mass parameters

Spring and damper:

o Spring rate: k N/m
o Damper rating: 0 N/(m/s)

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 Figure 5: global parameters definition

The parameter M and k have to be defined as global parameters (Settings >> Global parameters), as
defined on Figure 5.

Running the simulation and analyzing the results

In simulation mode , we can run the simulation . Then, it is easy and fast to plot temporal
results, just dragging and dropping any variable (Figure 6) from the variable window to the sketch.
For instance, you can plot the temporal displacement of the mass (Figure 7).

Figure 6: Mass variables

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 Figure 7: oscillations of the undamped system

We can visualize that the system is oscillating and, as we have no damping, and the amplitude remains
constant.

We can now calculate the natural pulsation of the system from the values of the mass and the
stiffness:
10
= = = 3.16 /
1

The oscillations frequency for the undamped system is then:

10
= = = 0.50
2 2

We can easily validate this value of the frequency with LMS Amesim, performing a FFT (Fast Fourier
Transform): in the plot window menu bar, select Tools >> FFT and click on the mass displacement
curve. You will get the result presented on Figure 8.

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 Figure 8: Applying an FFT on the mass displacement

We can also compute the value of the critical damping:

= 2 = 2 10 1 = 6.32 /( )

Using LMS Amesim, we can easily visualize the impact of the damper rating on the system dynamics.
We can, for instance, define the damper rating as a batch parameter (Settings >> Batch parameters).
In the batch parameter window (Figure 9), we can use an expression in order to calculate the damper
rating corresponding to 4 values of the damping ratio:
=0
=0.1
=1
=3

Figure 9: Batch parameters window

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Now, we can perform the batch simulation (in the run parameters window , select the Batch Run
type) and plot the mass displacement and use a batch plot for comparing the mass displacement
for the 4 cases:
undamped system,
underdamped system,
critically damped system
overdamped system.

Figure 10: Results of the simulation for the 4 cases

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Summary
With this tutorial, we considered a simple mechanical system with a single degree freedom.

With this mass spring and damper system without any excitation force, we explained some important
phenomenon occurring in mechanical vibratory systems. More especially, we could define the natural
pulsation, the eigen frequency and the damping ratio of the system.
We also explained the impact of the value of the damping ratio on the dynamic behavior of the system
that can be undamped, underdamped, critically damper or overdamped.

Finally, using system simulation made possible to validate the theory, reproducing the dynamic
behavior of the system for different damping values or calculating easily and fast the value of the
oscillations frequency.

In a next step, we could consider the behavior of the same simple system excited by a sinusoidal
force. Thats the topic of another tutorial: Response of a system with one Degree of Freedom (DoF)
excited by a sinusoidal force.

Bibliography
1. Mecanique des vibrations linaires M Lalanne, P Berthier, J Der Hagopian Masson 1992

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