Mechanical Vibration

(ME701)

Bachelor of Science (Engineering) Program

Department of Mechatronics Engineering
SLTC

Eng Dr Aravinda Abeygunawardane

Senior Lecturer
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Moratuwa
Undamped Free
Vibrations
Lecture 1

ME 701
 Historical Facts on Mechanical Vibration

• People became interested in vibrations due to Musical Instruments;

mainly drums and whistles.
• Pythagoras (582 B.C) is considered to be the first person to investigate
sounds in scientific basis. He also conduct experiment on a vibrating
string.
• Chinese developed an instrument to measure earthquake precisely in
A.D 132. (World’s First Seismograph).
• Galileo Galilei later on studied on simple pendulum.
• The first correct published account on vibration of string is by French
mathematician Marin Mersenne.
• Theoretical solution of problem of vibrating string : Brook Taylor (1720).
• Principle of Superposition: Daniel Bernoulli.
Recent Historical Facts on Mechanical Vibration

Dynamic vibration Digital Computers

absorber linked with the
1909 studies and
development of FEM
vibration of There were some

beams, plates Theory of random many developments

vibrations ~ 1920 in the time between

and membranes
The mentioned events.
~1910
Mathematical theory

Timoshenko or Thick of nonlinear

Beam Theory vibrations

 Importance of Study of Vibrations
• Human activities involves lot of vibrations: breathing,
walking, oscillatory motion of legs and hands, human
speech.
• Engineering application of vibrations: Design of machines,
Foundations, Structures, Engines, Turbines and control
systems.
• Vibration can cause rapid wear of machine parts (bearings
and gears) and create excessive noise.
• Vibrations can also cause chatter in machining leads to
poor finish.
• Can loosen fastener such as nuts.
 Importance of Study of Vibrations

• Natural frequency of a machine = frequency of external

excitation; it is the resonance. This cause excessive
deflection and failure.
• Another important purpose is to reduce vibration through
proper design of machines and their mountings.
• Vibration it self is used in some machines; vibratory
conveyors, hoppers, sieves, washing machines, electric
massaging units.
 What is a Vibration ?
Any motion that repeats itself after an interval of
time is called vibration or oscillation.
• Vibration system includes following
Ø Means to store potential energy.
Ø Means to store kinetic energy.
Ø Means which energy is gradually lost.
• Vibration of a system involves transfer of potential
energy to kinetic energy, alternatively.
• If system is damped, energy is dissipated in each
cycle.
 Vibration Classifications
Can be classified in several ways.
q Free Vibrations:
Ø Left to vibrate on its own after an initial disturbance.
Ø No external force acts on the system.
Ø Ex: oscillation of a simple pendulum.
q Forced Vibrations:
Ø System is subjected to an external force (often repeating force).
Ø Ex: Diesel engine.
Ø Frequency of external source = natural frequencies of the system;
then there will be resonance.
q Undamped Vibrations: No energy lost in friction or other resistance
during oscillation.
 Vibration Classifications
qDamped Vibrations: Energy is lost due to the friction of the system.
However, amount of damping is very low and can be disregarded.
qLinear Vibrations: Spring / Mass and Damper behave linearly, Principal
of superposition holds, mathematical techniques of analysis are well
developed.
q Nonlinear Vibrations: Basic component behave non-linearly,
superposition principle is not valid, techniques of analysis are less well
known.
q Deterministic Vibrations: Value or magnitude of the excitation acting on
a vibratory system is known at any given time.
q Non-deterministic or Random Vibrations: Value of the excitation at a
given time cannot predicted. Random excitations: wind velocity, road
roughness.
 What are degrees of Freedom ?

Minimum number of independent co-ordinates

required to determine completely the positions of all
parts of a system at any instant of time.
Ø Single Degree of Freedom
 What are degrees of Freedom ?

ØTwo – Degree of Freedom

ØThree – Degree of Freedom

 What are degrees of Freedom ?
• Generalized co-ordinate system:
Ø Co-ordinates necessary to describe the motion of a system.
ØThis can be Cartesian or non-Cartesian co-ordinate.
• Discrete or Lumped Parameter Systems: These are the systems with finite
number of degrees of freedom
• Continuous or Distributed Systems: Systems with an infinite number of
degrees of freedom.

Ø Continuous systems are approximated as discrete systems. It is

approximated as this mainly due to difficulty to obtain solution via analytical
methods.
 Vibration Analysis Procedure
• The main idea in analysis is to predict the behavior of the system under
specified input conditions.
• Vibratory system is a dynamic in nature: excitations or inputs and responses
are time dependent.
• Response of the vibrating system depends on the initial conditions and the
external excitations.
• Normally, a complex system will be converted to a simple model.
• Steps are as follows
ü Mathematical Modeling
ü Derivation of governing equation.
ü Solution of the governing equation.
ü Interpretation of the results.
Mathematical Model of a Motor Cycle
Spring Elements
Linear Spring Elements Springs in Parallel
F=kx
U = (½)kx2
Non-Linear Spring Elements
F=ax+bx3
Spring Constant of a Rod
Springs in Series

Spring Constant of a
Cantilever Beam
Mass Elements
• Mass element is a rigid body and can loose and gain kinetic energy when the
velocity of the body changes.
• In practical situations, several masses appears in combinations. We can
reduce it to one single equivalent mass as follows.

Translational Mass
Mass Elements
Translational and Rotational Mass

Equivalent Translational Mass Equivalent Rotational Mass

Damping Elements
• Damping is a mechanism that convert vibration energy to heat or sound.
• Damper has no mass or elasticity.
• Damping force exist only if there is a relative velocity between two ends of the
damper.
• Damping is modeled by one of the following types.
a. Viscous damping : commonly used / cause by the resistance of the
fluid medium such as air, gas and water or oil / dissipated energy
depends on size and shape of the body, µ of the fluid, vibration
frequency, and velocity of vibration / Fd α V
b. Coulomb or Dry – Friction damping : Force is constant / opposite to
the direction of motion of the body.
c. Material or Solid or Hysteresis damping : Energy absoprtion or
dessipation due to friction between internal plane by slip or slide.
Modelling Approach to a Problem

Spring / Damper Forces

Representation Representation Equivalent Representation
Harmonic Motion
• Periodic motion: Motion is repeated after equal interval of times.
• Harmonic Motion: It is the simplest type of periodic movement.
• Simple Harmonic Motion: Vibration such that acceleration is proportional to
the displacement and directed toward the mean position.
• The motion is represented by y = A sinωt or x = B cosωt etc.

Pictorial Representation of the Expression of

Simple Harmonic Motion.

y = A sinωt

x = B cosωt
Definition and Terminology
• Cycle : Movement of a vibrating body from its equilibrium position to its
extreme position in one direction and then to other direction, and back to
equilibrium position is known as a vibration cycle.
• Amplitude : Maximum displacement of a vibrating body from its equilibrium
position is called amplitude of vibration.
• Period of Oscillation : Time taken to complete one cycle of motion and also

called as Time Period. T = [2𝝅 / 𝝎 ]

𝜔 - is called circular frequency and denotes angular velocity
of the circular motion. Measured in radians per second.
• Frequency of Vibration: Number of cycles per unit time. f = [𝜔 / 2𝜋 ] =
1/T. f is measured in Hertz.
Definition and Terminology
• Phase Angle: To talk about this, it is important to know what is a synchronous
vibration. Consider two motions with an equations as follows.

x = a sin 𝜔t and x1 = b sin (𝜔t + 𝜙 )

Above motions are said to be synchronous because it has same frequency or
angular velocity. And they have following characteristics.

1. Need not to have same amplitude.

2. Need not to attain maximum amplitude at the same time.
However the motion x1 attain maximum displacement 𝜙 radians earlier than the

first vector. This value 𝜙 is called phase angle. And above two motion is said to

have a phase difference of 𝜙.

Definition and Terminology
Phase Difference is explained by the following image…

• Natural Frequency : After initial disturbance, a body is vibrating on its own

with a frequency without external forces is known as its natural frequencies.
Vibrating system that has n degree of freedoms will have n distinct
natural frequencies of vibrations.
Free Vibration Solution Approach
There are several methods that exist to derive an equation to depict the
description of free vibration. They are
1. Equation of motion
2. Energy method
3. Rayleigh method
4. Principle of virtual work..
Free vibrations can be studied by categorizing it to following categories.
• Free vibration of undamped translational systems
• Free vibration of undamped torsional systems
• Free vibration with viscous damping
• Free vibration with coulomb damping
Viscously damped free vibration will be done in next lecture………
Free Vibration – Energy Method
• Free vibration is a cyclic interchange of potential and kinetic energy.
• In undamped free vibration energy is not dissipated or removed from the
system.
• Both energy types are stored in the system as follows
1. Kinetic Energy: is stored as the velocity of the system
2. Potential Energy: is stored as strain energy in elastic deformation
• Since total energy of the system is conserved; principle of conservation
of energy is applied.
• Since mechanical energy is conserved, sum of the kinetic energy and
potential energy is constant and its rate of change is zero.
Thank you Very Much !