2

Free Vibration

PREVIEW

A structure is said to be undergoing free vibration when it is disturbed from its static equi-
librium position and then allowed to vibrate without any external dynamic excitation. In
this chapter we study free vibration leading to the notions of the natural vibration frequency
and damping ratio for an SDF system. We will see that the rate at which the motion decays
in free vibration is controlled by the damping ratio. Thus the analytical results describing
free vibration provide a basis to determine the natural frequency and damping ratio of a
structure from experimental data of the type shown in Fig. 1.1.4.
Although damping in actual structures is due to several energy-dissipating mech-
anisms acting simultaneously, a mathematically convenient approach is to idealize them
by equivalent viscous damping. Consequently, this chapter deals primarily with viscously
damped systems. However, free vibration of systems in the presence of Coulomb friction
forces is analyzed toward the end of the chapter.

2.1 UNDAMPED FREE VIBRATION

The motion of linear SDF systems, visualized as an idealized one-story frame or a mass–
spring–damper system, subjected to external force p(t) is governed by Eq. (1.5.2). Setting
p(t) = 0 gives the differential equation governing free vibration of the system, which for
systems without damping (c = 0) specializes to
m ü + ku = 0 (2.1.1)

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