Assignment 2

5.5 A wooden block of mass 3 kg is restrained by a spring of stiffness 2N/mm (Fig. P5.5).
A bullet of mass 0.2 kg is fired at a speed of 20 m/s into the block and embeds itself into
the latter. Obtain the maximum displacement of the block, (a) neglecting damping; (b)
assuming that damping is 10% of critical.

Figure P5.5

6.1 Two uniform parallel beams AB 1.2m long, weighing 20 kg each, are hinged at A and
supported at B by a spring of stiffness 4.33N/mm as shown in Figure P6.1. The beams
carry a flywheel of mass 132 kg attached at D, 1.0m away from the hinge. The flywheel
is rotating at 200 RPM and its center of gravity is offset 3mm from the axis of rotation.
Find (a) the natural frequency of the system, (b) the maximum vertical movement of end
B of the beams. Neglect damping.

Fig. 6.1

6.4 A vibration test machine consists of a 1200-lb payload mounted on a beam arrangement.
The static deflection is noted to be 0.386 in. Damping is small, but the oscillation of the system was
observed to decrease from 0.2 in. to 0.05 in. in 18 cycles. If the supports of the beam can be given a
harmonic displacement of amplitude 0.1 in. at the natural frequency of the system, estimate the expected
amplitude attained by the payload.
6.7 A seismic instrument designed to measure vertical acceleration consists of a light beam AB pivoted at
A through a torsional spring of constant 20Nm (Fig. P6.7). A small body of mass 0.6 kg is fixed to the
beam at end B and a viscous damper is attached at C. The pointer BED, pivoted to the 0.6 kg mass at B and
to the instrument casing at E, moves over the scale at D as shown in the figure. The viscous damper is
adjusted to provide a damping of 0.7 times the critical. Obtain the undamped natural frequency of the
instrument and the damping coefficient of the viscous damper. The instrument is calibrated to read the
support acceleration correctly at an input frequency of 1Hz. Obtain the calibration factor. If the support
acceleration is 3m/s2 at a frequency of 5 Hz what will be the instrument reading and what is the
percentage error?

Figure 6.7

7.11 An automobile modeled as a single-degree-of-freedom system rides over a hump in a road.

The hump can be represented by a half sine wave of length L and height h as shown in Figure P7.11. The
speed of the vehicle is v and its natural frequency is ω. Assuming that the shock absorbers of the car are
worn, so that the damping is zero, show that the absolute displacement of the vehicle while it is riding
over the hump is given by:
ℎ
𝑢𝑡 = (sin Ωt − β sin 𝜔𝑡)
1 − 𝛽2
where Ω =πv/L and β = Ω/ω. Also show that the displacement of the vehicle relative to the ground
while the vehicle is riding over the hump is given by:
ℎ𝛽 2 1
𝑢= 2
(sin Ωt − sin 𝜔𝑡)
1−𝛽 𝛽

Fig. 7.11.