Section 1.

8 Stability
Stability is defined for the solution of free
response case:

Stable:

Asymptotically Stable:
Unstable:
if it is not stable or asymptotically stable
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1/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Examples of the types of stability
Stable Asymptotically Stable

t t

Figure 1.37

t
t

Divergent instability Flutter instability

Figure 1.38 Figure 1.39
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Example: 1.8.1: For what values of the
spring constant will the response be stable?
Figure 1.37

© D. J. Inman
3/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
 1.9 Numerical Simulation
• Solving differential equations
by numerical integration
• Euler, Runge-Kutta, etc.
• Available in Mathcad,
Matlab, Mathematica and
0.5
Maple (or in FORTRAN)
• Or use Engineering Vibration 0.4
Toolbox
Amplitude of x
0.3
• Will use these to examine
nonlinear vibration problems 0.2
that do not have analytical
expressions for solutions 0.1

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Time (sec)
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First order differential equation
x3 will be used to
calculate the
next term x4

amplitude

The new value of x

is calculated from
the old value of x. Time (sec)

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Example 1.9.1 solve dx/dt = -3x, x(0)=1

Numerical solution
Note that the numerical
Solution is different for
Each choice of Δt

Analytical solution

© D. J. Inman
6/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Time step
Figure 1.41
•With time step at
1
0.5 sec the
Numerical solution Δt=0.5sec
numerical solution
oscillates about the Numerical solution Δt=0.05sec
Exact solution
Amplitude of x
exact solution 0.5
•Large errors can be
caused by choosing
the time step to be 0
too small
•Small time steps
require more -0.5
computation 0 1 2 3 4
Time (sec)

© D. J. Inman
7/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Numerical solution of the 2nd
order equation of vibration:
It is necessary to convert the second order equation into
two first order equations. To achieve this two new variables
x1 and x2 are defined as follows.

From this two first order differential equations can be

written.

Called state space

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The matrix form is
Combining these first order DEs in matrix form gives.

State
vector

State
matrix

The Euler numerical method can then be applied to the

matrix form to give.

© D. J. Inman
9/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
MATLAB Solutions ‘ode23’ and ‘ode45’
• Use Runge-Kutta. More sophisticated than the Euler
method but more accurate
• Often picks ∆t (i.e. if solution x(t) is rapidly changing Δt is
chosen to be small and visa-versa
• Works for nonlinear equations too

Create Matlab function In the command window

function xdot=sdof(t,x) » t0=0;tf=20;

k=2;c=1;m=3; » x0=[0 ; 0.25];
A=[0 1;-k/m -c/m]; » [t,x]=ode45('sdof',[t0 tf],x0);
xdot=A*x; » plot(t,x)
© D. J. Inman
Saved as sdof.m
10/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Resulting solution
Figure 1.42
0.3
Displacement
0.2 Velocity
Amplitude

0.1

-0.1

-0.2
0 5 10 15 20
Time (sec)
© D. J. Inman
11/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Why use numerical simulation when we can
compute the analytical solution and plot it?
• To have a tool that we are confident
with that will allow us to solve for the
response when an analytical solution
cannot be found
• Nonlinear systems do not have
analytical solutions, but can be
simulated numerically

© D. J. Inman
12/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Section 1.10 Coulomb Friction and
the Pendulum

Nonlinear phenomenon in
vibration analysis

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13/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Vibration of Nonlinear Systems
x0
x(t)
k
m

N=mg

The force due to Coulomb friction opposes motion, hence the

‘sgn’ function is used. The force is proportional to the normal
force and independent of the velocity of the mass.

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14/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
The free body diagram split depending
on the direction of motion:

Figure 1.44

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15/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
The ‘sgn’ function is nonlinear

• Causes equation of 0.3

motion to be nonlinear
0.2
• Can solve as piecewise
linear (see text)

Displacement x
0.1
• Can solve numerically
• Has more than one 0
equilibrium position
-0.1
• Decay is linear rather
then exponential -0.2
• Comes to rest when
spring cannot overcome
0 5 10 15 20 25
friction at the instant the Time (sec)
velocity is zero Does not
Linear settle at x=0
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decay
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Figure 1.45 shows the details of the free
response of a system with Coulomb damping

© D. J. Inman
17/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
A General second order system can be
written as a single first order equation

The equilibrium position is defined:

For Coulomb friction this is defined as:

i.e. the positions where the force due to the spring can no
longer overcome the sliding friction force
© D. J. Inman
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 Example 1.10.2: Calculating the
equilibrium position for nonlinear DEs

Equation of motion: Equilibrium positions:

State space form:

Multiple equilibrium
positions possible
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19/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
 The pendulum
Stable
Equilibrium
θ = 0, 2π, 4π, ...
θ
Unstable
Equilibrium m
θ = π, 3π, 5π, ...
mg

© D. J. Inman
20/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Example 1.10.2 Equilibrium of a Pendulum

Figure 1.44

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21/24 Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Solution to the pendulum
• Can use numerical simulation to examine both linear and
nonlinear response
• Let (g/L)=(0.1)2 so that ωn = 0.1
• a) use θ(0)=0.3 rad & initial vel: 0.3 rad/s
• b) change the initial position to: θ(0)= π rad which is near the
unstable equilibrium
(a) (b)
1.5 30
Non-linear Non-linear
1 Linear Linear
20
0.5
Angle (θ)

Angle (θ)
0 10

-0.5
0
-1

-1.5 -10
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (sec) Time (sec)
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Pendulum with friction added

15
After making a θ=4π
single loop the
pendulum
10
cannot make a
Angle (θ)

second rotation
and settles to the Friction
stable 5 loss
equilibrium causes
position of θ=4π slow decay
0
0 20 40 60 80
Time (sec)

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Summary of Nonlinear Vibrations
• Additional phenomena over linear case
• Multiple equilibrium
• Instabilities possible with positive coefficients
• Form of response dependent on initial conditions
• Closed form solutions usually not available
• Can simulate numerically
• Linear model has tremendous advantages
• Linear combination of inputs yields linear combination of
outputs
• Linear ode techniques very powerful
• But don’t make a design error by ignoring important nonlinear
situations
• All systems have nonlinear ranges of operation
• Need to sort out when nonlinearity is important to consider
and when to ignore it
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