MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

FUNDAMENTALS OF
VIBRATIONS
SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Upon completion of this lecture, you should be able to:

 Determine if a vibration motion can be classified as simple
harmonic.
 Represent simple harmonic motion in both trigonometric and
complex forms.
 Understand some basic terminology that are used to define a
vibration signal.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

INTRODUCTION

 Oscillatory motion may repeat itself regularly as in the

case of a simple pendulum, or it may display considerable
irregularity, as in earthquakes.
 When the motion is repeated in equal intervals of time  ,
it is called periodic motion.
 The repetition time  is called the period of oscillation,
and its reciprocal 1 is called the frequency.
f 

 If the motion is designated by the time function xt  , then
any periodic motion must satisfy the relationship:
xt   xt   
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION

 The simplest type of periodic motion is called a simple

harmonic motion.
 It is essentially a periodic motion with a single frequency.
 It can be demonstrated by a mass suspended from a light
spring.
 If the mass is displaced from its rest position and released,
it will oscillate up and down.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)

 The motion of the mass can be expressed by the equation

 t
x  A sin  2 
 
 A is the amplitude of oscillation, measured from the
equilibrium position of the mass.
  is the period, and the motion is repeated when t   .
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)

 Harmonic motion is often represented as the projection on

a straight line of a point that is moving on a circle at
constant speed.
 With the angular speed of the line OP designated by  ,
the displacement x can be written as x  A sint  .
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)

 The quantity  is measured in radians per second, and is
referred to as the circular or angular frequency.
 Since the motion repeat itself every 2 radians, we have
the relationship 2 .
  2f

  and f are the period and frequency of the harmonic
motion, usually measured in seconds and cycles per second
(Hz), respectively.
 The velocity and acceleration of harmonic motion can be
simply determined by differentiation of x  A sint  .
x  A cost  A sin t  2 
x   2 A sin t   2 A sin t   
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)

 Thus the velocity and acceleration are also harmonic with

the same frequency of oscillation but lead the displacement
by  / 2 and  radians, respectively.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)

 The acceleration can be written as x   x .

2

 Therefore, in simple harmonic motion, the acceleration is

proportional to the displacement and is directed towards
the origin.
 As Newton’s 2nd law states that the acceleration is
proportional to the force, harmonic motion can be expected
with linear springs with force varying as kx .
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

COMPLEX FORM OF SIMPLE

HARMONIC MOTION

 The trigonometric functions of sine and cosine are related

to the exponential function by Euler’s equation:
ei  cos  i sin 
 A vector of amplitude z rotating at constant angular speed
 can be represented as a complex quantity A in the
Argand diagram.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

COMPLEX FORM OF SIMPLE HARMONIC

MOTION (cont.)

 The following relationship holds:

z  Aeit
 A cost  iA sin t
 x  iy
 The quantity z is referred to as the complex sinusoid with
x and y as the real and imaginary components.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

COMPLEX FORM OF SIMPLE HARMONIC

MOTION (cont.)

 The above figure shows z and its conjugate z * which is

rotating in the negative direction with angular speed  .
 From this diagram, it is seen that the real component x is
expressed in terms of z and z * by the equation:
x  12 z  z *  A cost  Re Aeit
 Re stands for the real part of the quantity z .
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

COMPLEX FORM OF SIMPLE

HARMONIC MOTION (cont.)
 Some of the rules of exponential operations between
z1  A1ei1 and z2  A2ei 2 are:

 Multiplication z1 z2  A1 A2ei 1  2 

z1  A1  i 1  2 
 Division   e
z 2  A2 

z n  An ein
 Powers
1 1 i
z A e
n n n
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY

 Since the position, velocity and acceleration change

continually with time, several other quantities are used to
discuss vibration.
 The peak value, defined as the maximum displacement, or
magnitude A , usually indicates the maximum stress that
the vibrating part is undergoing.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Another quantity useful in describing vibration is the

average value, denoted as x , and defined by:

 xt dt
1 T
x  lim
T  T 0

 The average value indicates a steady or static value

somewhat like the DC level of an electrical current.
 For example, the average value for a complete cycle of a
sine wave Asint  is zero.
 Its average value for a half-cycle is, however:

x
A
  2A
0 sin t dt   0.637 A
 
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Since the square of displacement is associated with a

system’s potential energy, the average of the displacement
squared is sometimes a useful vibration property to
discuss.
 The mean square value of a time function xt  , denoted
2
by x is found from the average of the squared values,
integrated over some time interval T :
x 2 t dt
1 T
x  lim 
2
T  T 0

 If xt   A sin t , its mean square value is:

A2 1
1  cos2t dt  A
1 2
T
x  lim 
2
T  T 0 2 2
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 The root mean square (rms) value is the square root of the
mean square value.
 From the previous example for xt   A sin t , the rms of
the sine wave of amplitude A is:
A
Arms   0.707A
2
 Vibration instrumentation generally measures root mean
square vibration amplitudes (displacement, velocity or
acceleration).
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Since the peak value of the velocity and acceleration are

multiples of the circular frequency times the displacement
amplitude, these three basic quantities often differ in value
by an order of magnitude.
 For systems with circular frequency  larger than 1 rad/s,
the relative amplitude of the velocity response is larger
than that of the displacement by a multiple of  , and the
acceleration response is larger by a multiple of  2 .
 For systems with circular frequency less than 1 rad/s, the
velocity and acceleration have smaller relative amplitudes
than the displacement.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 A common unit of measurement for vibration amplitudes

and rms values is the decibel (dB). As the decibel is a
logarithmic unit, it compresses or expands the scale.
 The decibel was originally defined in terms of the base 10
logarithm of the power ratio of two electrical signals, or as
the ratio of the square of the amplitudes of two signals.
2
 P1   x1   x1 
dB  10 log10    10 log10    20 log10  
 P2   x2   x2 

 The equation based on the ratio of the square of the

amplitudes of two signals results from the fact that power
is proportional to the square of the amplitude or voltage.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Cycle is the movement of a vibrating body from its

equilibrium position to its extreme position in one
direction, then to the equilibrium position, then to its
extreme position in other direction, and back to
equilibrium position. 1 revolution (angular displacement
of 2 radians) of the pin P or one revolution of the vector
OP constitute a cycle.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Amplitude, denoted by A , is defined as the maximum

displacement of a vibrating body from its equilibrium
position.
 Period of oscillation, denoted by  , is defined as the time
(second) taken to complete one cycle of motion.
 It is equal to the time required for the vector OP to rotate
through an angle of 2 and therefore: 2


 Frequency of oscillation, denoted by f , is defined as the
number of cycles per unit time. f is measured in
cycles/second (Hz). 1 
f  
 2
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

VIBRATION TERMINOLOGY (cont.)

 Phase angle (  ) is the difference in time between two

events such as the zero crossing of two waveforms.
  is expressed in radians as the time between two events
divided by the period, times 2. t
  2

MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

EXAMPLE 1

 The maximum displacement and the maximum

acceleration of the foundation of a centrifugal pump were
found to be 0.25 mm and 0.4g. Find the operating speed of
the pump. Assume the motion of the foundation is
harmonic.
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

EXAMPLE 1 (cont.)

 For harmonic motion, the following relationship between

displacement and acceleration is valid:

xmax    2 xmax
 From the above equation, we solve for the angular
frequency:

xmax 0.4  9.81

  3
 125.28 rad/s
xmax 0.2510
MEMB443 Mechanical Vibrations

EXAMPLE 1 (cont.)

 The operating speed of the pump is related to the angular

frequency by the following equation:

60 60 125 .28

N   1196 .3 rpm
2 2