19th International Conference

"Research and Development in Mechanical Industry"

RaDMI-2019
12-15 September 2019, Belgrade (Serbia)

Application of differential equations in vibration analysis

Violeta Đorđević1, Ljiljana Pecić 2

1
Academy of Applied Studes Šumadija, Kragujevac, Trstenik, Serbia, vdjordjevic@asss.edu.rs
2
Academy of Applied Studes Šumadija, Kragujevac, Trstenik, Serbia, ljpecic72@gmail.com

Abstract: In engineering considerations, especially in modeling, describing various parametric dependencies,

the complex mathematical analyzes of problems are required, where more complicated mathematical modeling,
is necessary where knowledge and application of complex mathematical calculation procedure is needed.
Differential equations occur in all areas of engineering and science, since they describe many real physical
processes. In general, most physical processes involve more than one independent variable, so the
corresponding differential equations are partial differential equations. In this paper, the analysis of free
vibrations is processed, using a simple system of masses - springs.

Keywords: vibration, differential equations

1. Introduction

In a significant segment of engineering practice calculations are based on solving various

mathematical expressions that describe certain, concrete and real problems that engineers encounter in
practice. Since the language of mathematics describes real problems, apropos modeling real problems,
mathematical description often, for various reasons, does not completely match (accuracy) with the
real problem, apropos does not represent his realistic picture.
Mathematical models of various processes from engineering practice are mainly represented by a
system of algebraic or differential equations. By solving such mathematical models by finding their
derivatives, zero functions, integrals, etc., it is possible to report exact solutions to mathematical
problems, and in the most cases they must be approximated by approximate solutions.
Partial differential equations occur in all fields of science and engineering, and most real physical
processes can be described using them. In many cases, simplified approximations are used, so partial
differential equations can be reduced to ordinary differential equations, and sometimes to algebraic
equations.
Partial differential equations are equations that give a relation between a function or several variables
and partial derivatives of some function in relation to its independent variables. In most engineering
problems, independent variables are either spatial (x, y, z) or spatial and temporal (x, y, z, t), and the
dependent variable depends on the process being modeled.
Vibrations are a form of oscillatory motion of mechanical systems, in which the displacements of the
points of the system are small compared to the dimensions of the system, and the period of oscillation
is much smaller than the time in which the motion is observed.
Free vibrations occur when the system is taken out of equilibrium under the action of internal forces
and allowed to heal. The system oscillates with a constant amplitude at one frequency - its own
frequency.
Here, the type of free vibrations that represents a simple system of masses - springs is analyzed.

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2. Physical model for mathematical formulation

The mass-spring system is the simplest model for the analysis of mechanical vibrations. As its name
suggests, it consists of a mass and a spring. The spring in the system serves to support the mass. A
spring does not have to be a spiral spring, any elastic body can be viewed as a spring.

Fig. 1: Mass system - spring

As shown in the following figure, the starting point is the freely suspended spring (s). Then a load of
mass m is attached to the spring, its elongation occurs (x is the magnitude of the elongation of the
spring under the action of mass m) and this position is considered as the initial equilibrium position
(b).
Finally, a small pull down and a quick release causes the mass to move down - passing its initial
equilibrium position (vibration of the mass at time t, h + y (t) - stretching the spring at time t) (c).
h+y(t)

Fig. 2: Physical model of vibration

3. Mathematical formulation of the mass - spring system

When determining the mathematical formulation of the mass-spring system, air resistance during mass
movement is not taken into account. Looking at the previous figure, the figure under b) shows static,
and the figure under c) dynamic equilibrium. The forces acting in the case of static equilibrium are:
elastic spring force (Fs) and gravity force (F). The forces acting in the case of dynamic equilibrium
are: elastic force of the spring (Fs), force of gravity (F) and inertial force (F (t)).
When the system is taken out of balance, the elastic force tends to return the body to its original
position. When this happens, under the action of the force of inertia, the body continues to move until

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the moment when the spring is maximally stretched and when the elastic force begins to act again, but
in the opposite direction. This process is repeated, which leads to oscillatory movement of the body at
the natural frequency of the system, which depends on the properties of the system - body mass and
spring stiffness.
The period of oscillation represents the time required for the system to perform one full oscillation Tn
(s). Oscillation frequency represents the number of oscillations performed in a unit of time fn = 1 / Tn
(Hz = 1 / s) Elongation (displacement) represents the distance of a material point or body from the
equilibrium position. Amplitude represents the maximum displacement in simple periodic motion.

Fig. 3: Statička i dinamička ravnoteža

Equilibrium of forces at static equilibrium can be noted as:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Equilibrium of forces at dynamic equilibrium, at the observed time t, satisfies Newton's first law:
(4)

Since there is a dynamic force here, there will be:

(5)

Since acceleration is the first derivative of speed, and the second derivative of position in time, that is:
(6)

when we replace this expression with the previous equation, the next equation is obtained:
(7)

and the force of the spring will be:

(8)

so that it was obtained:

(9)

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When the condition from static equilibrium mg = kh is replaced by the previous equation, a second-
order differential equation is obtained for the current position y (t) when the mass vibrates m.

(10)

where y (t) is the current position of the mass.

When we divide the equation by m, we get:
(11)

The solution of the equation can be obtained by comparing the previous equation with a typical
second-order differential equation in the equation:

(12)

In this case, after comparison, we conclude that a = 0 and b = k / m. This is the case when it comes to
free undamped vibrations. The solution of the equation depends on the discriminator a2 - 4b.
There are three possible solutions:
1) a2 – 4b > 0 - in this case both roots of the equation are real numbers and the solution of the
equation is of the form::

(13)

2) a2 – 4b < 0 - in this case both roots of the equation are complex numbers and the solution of
the equation is shape:

(14)

The complex form of this equation is not always suitable for engineering analysis, so the equation is
used much more often:

(15)

where A and B are arbitrary constants.

3) a2 – 4b = 0 - in this case the solution of the equation is of the form:

(16)

Therefore, we have the following a2 – 4b = 0 – 4 (k/m) < 0, which is the second case of the solution
and is given in the form:

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 (17)
apropos,

(18)

where A and B are arbitrary constants determined by given conditions.

Common expression of solutions for an equation:

je (19)

(20)

where c1 and c2 are arbitrary constants determined by given conditions, and ω0 is the circular or
angular vibration frequency of the mass-spring system:

(21)

Analogous to the angular frequency, the actual vibration frequency is:

(22)

The mathematical solution of consists of cosine and sine functions of

the variable t, so it is an oscillatory function, which oscillates around the "zero time" axis with the
amplitude of vibrations y (t)
According to this mathematical solution and the graph shown in the following figure, it follows that
the system will oscillate forever, which, of course, is not possible in a real situation, mass cannot
oscillate forever, after a while, the vibrations will stop.

Fig. 4: Graphic representation of mass-spring system vibration

4. Application of differential equations

The above calculation can be applied to a specific example of unloading the machine. The truck
unloads a heavy machine, weighing 3555 N, using a crane. If the rope is suddenly stuck at time t, with
an initial speed v0 = 0.1 m / s, it can be expected that the machine will be exposed to "up - down - up"
vibrations. The constant of the elastic steel rope (spring stiffness) is k = 1050 N / mm, the rope is a

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steel cable with a diameter of 13 mm. The maximum allowable stress of the material (strength) is σ =
275 N / mm2.
The following patterns can be used to determine: the vibration frequency of the machine, the
maximum rope voltage caused by the machine vibration and the maximum rope stress. It can also be
determined whether the rope would break

Fig. 5: Example of unloading a machine

Since the machine is attached to an elastic rope (steel cable) that has the characteristics of a spring,
this situation can be viewed as a simple mass system - a spring. The frequency and amplitude of the
vibrating machine can be determined using expressions derived from a simple mass-spring system.
The vibration frequency of the machine is given by the following equations:
Circular or angular frequency is:

(23)

The weight of the machine is determined based on its weight from the sample:

(24)

so from here we got:

(25)

and when we replace this in the frequency pattern, we get:

(25)

The maximum stress in the rope is determined by the total elongation of the steel rope, ie. the
maximum amplitude of vibration of the machine. To obtain the amplitude of a vibrating machine, it is
necessary to solve the differential equation of the following form, under appropriate conditions. The
shape of differential equation is:

(26)

with conditions:

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 i (27)

(28)

The first derivative of displacement is speed, at the moment t = 0, so initial speed is v0 = 0,1m/s.
The solution of the previous equation is:

(29)

(30)

Arbitrary constants c1 and c2 in the previous equation can be determined using given conditions, from
which we get that c1 = 0; c2 = 1.8898. Thus, the vibration amplitude of the machine is obtained in the
following form:
(31)

From this expression the maximum amplitude is obtained:

(32)

The appropriate maximum voltage is in the rope:

(33)

The maximum stress in the rope (normal stress) is obtained from the following expression:

(34)

A is the cross-sectional area of the steel rope and amounts:

(35)

When this result is replaced in the previous equation, we get:

(36)

From this it can be concluded that the rope will not break because the maximum induced stress in the
steel rope is much less than the given allowable stress (material strength), ie.

(37)

5. Conclusion

Algorithms for analytical solution of partial differential equations do not exist in the general case.
Only special types are considered in the case of partial differential equations of the second order.

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For a function with two or more variables, it is relatively easy to find many partial differential
equations whose solution is with appropriate boundary conditions. Conversely, finding a solution for a
given partial differential equation with given boundary conditions is much more difficult and usually
impossible analytically.
However, there are three things that can help engineers in this case:
- many problems in engineering include a relatively small number of types of partial
differential equations that are up to the second derivative
- there are a large number of standard analytical methods that provide solutions to important
partial differential equations that appear in models of real processes
- computer software such as Mathematica, Maple and MATLAB can perform analytical manipulations
that would be extremely difficult to perform manually, so the set of analytical methods for engineers
has been significantly expanded.
Solving practical models, using known partial differential equations, is usually very difficult
analytically and computers are used to obtain approximate numerical values. A large number of
numerical methods have been developed for solving partial differential equations, which in practice
significantly overcomes the lack of analytical methods.

References

[1] Miloje Rajović – Parcijalne diferencijalne jednačine, Akademska misao, Beograd, 2007.g.

[2] Milenko Heleta, Dragan Cvetković – Osnove inženjerstva i savremene metode u inženjerstvu, Univerzitet
Singidunum, Fakultet za informatiku i menadžment, Beograd, 2009.g.

[3] Dragan Cvetković – Fizički parametri radne i životne sredine

[4] Tai-Ran Hsu - Application of Second Order Differential Equations in Mechanical Engineering Analysis,
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA

[5] Wei-Chau Xie - Differential Equations for Engineers, University of Waterloo, Cambridge University Press,
New York, USA, 2010.g.

[6] Michael Brady - Partial Differential Equations & waves, University of Oxford, Michaelmas, 2005.g.

[7] C. T. J. Dodson - Introduction to Partial Differential Equations for Engineers, School of Mathematics,
Manchester University

[8] L. Stefanović, M. Matejić, S. Marinković – Diferencijalne jednačine za studente tehničkih fakulteta,

Elektronski fakultet u Nišu, SKC Niš, 2006.g.