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Fundamentals of
Structural Dynamics
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Fundamentals of
Structural Dynamics
ZHIHUI ZHOU
Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
YING WEN
CHENZHI CAI
QINGYUAN ZENG
Elsevier
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Contents
About the authors ix

Preface xi
1. Overview of structural dynamics 1

1.1 Objective of structural dynamic analysis 1
1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics 2
1.3 Classification of vibrations 3
1.4 Vibration problems in engineering 6
1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures 7
1.5.1 Description of system configuration 7
1.5.2 Analysis of excitation 7
1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation 9
1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system 9
1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion 10
1.5.6 Vibration tests 10
Problems 10
References 11
2. Formulation of equations of motion of systems 13

2.1 System constraints 13
2.2 Representation of system configuration 18
2.3 Real displacements, possible displacements, and virtual displacements 22
2.4 Generalized force 25
2.5 Conservative force and potential energy 30
2.6 Direct equilibrium method 34
2.7 Principle of virtual displacements 35
2.8 Lagrange’s equation 39
2.9 Hamilton’s principle 45
2.10 Principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in
elastic system dynamics 50
2.10.1 Principle of virtual work and principle of total potential
energy with a stationary value in statics 50
2.10.2 Derivation of the principle of total potential energy
with a stationary value in elastic system dynamics 52
2.11 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices
and method of computer implementation in Matlab 59
v
vi Contents
2.11.1 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices 59

2.11.2 Method of computer implementation in Matlab for
assembling system matrices 70
References 75
Problems 75
3. Analysis of dynamic response of SDOF systems 79

3.1 Analysis of free vibrations 79
3.1.1 Undamped free vibrations 79
3.1.2 Damped free vibrations 81
3.1.3 Stability of motion 89
3.2 Response of SDOF systems to harmonic loads 93
3.3 Vibration caused by base motion and vibration isolation 105
3.3.1 Vibration caused by base motion 105
3.3.2 Vibration isolation 110
3.4 Introduction to damping theory 113
3.4.1 Viscous-damping theory 114
3.4.2 Hysteretic-damping theory 117
3.4.3 Frictional damping theory 118
3.5 Evaluation of viscous-damping ratio 118
3.5.1 Free-vibration decay method 119
3.5.2 Resonant amplification method 119
3.5.3 Half-power (band-width) method 120
3.5.4 Resonance energy loss per cycle method 124
3.6 Response of SDOF systems to periodic loads 126
3.7 Response of SDOF systems to impulsive loads 129
3.7.1 Sine-wave impulsive load 129
3.7.2 Rectangular impulsive load 134
3.7.3 Triangular impulsive load 136
3.7.4 Response ratios to different types of impulsive loads 138
3.7.5 Response spectra (shock spectra) 138
3.7.6 Approximate analysis of response to impulsive loads 141
3.8 Time-domain analysis of dynamic response to arbitrary
dynamic loads 143
3.9 Frequency-domain analysis of dynamic response to arbitrary
dynamic loads 146
3.9.1 Express the system response to periodic loads in complex form 147
3.9.2 Fourier integral method 150
References 153
Problems 153
Contents vii
4. Analysis of dynamic response of MDOF systems:

mode superposition method 157
4.1 Analysis of dynamic properties of multidegree-of-freedom systems 157
4.1.1 Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and principal vibration 157
4.1.2 Orthogonality of mode shapes 160
4.1.3 Repeated frequency case 163
4.2 Coupling characteristics and uncoupling procedure of equations
of MDOF systems 165
4.2.1 Coupling characteristics of equations of MDOF systems 165
4.2.2 Uncoupling procedure of equations of MDOF systems 167
4.3 Analysis of free vibration response of undamped systems 171
4.4 Response of undamped systems to arbitrary dynamic loads 175
4.5 Response of damped systems to arbitrary dynamic loads 177
References 184
Problems 185
5. Analysis of dynamic response of continuous systems:

straight beam 187
5.1 Differential equations of motion of undamped straight beam 188
5.2 Modal expansion of displacement and orthogonality of mode
shapes of straight beam 190
5.3 Free vibration analysis of undamped straight beam 195
5.4 Forced vibration analysis of undamped straight beam 201
5.5 Forced vibration analysis of damped straight beam 204
References 209
Problems 209
6. Approximate evaluation of natural frequencies and

mode shapes 211
6.1 Rayleigh energy method 211
6.2 RayleighRitz method 218
6.3 Matrix iteration method 222
6.3.1 Iteration procedure for fundamental frequency and mode 223
6.3.2 Iteration procedure for higher frequencies and modes 226
6.4 Subspace iteration method 229
6.5 Reduction of degrees of freedom in dynamic analysis 237
6.5.1 Preliminary comments 237
6.5.2 Kinematic constraints method 238
6.5.3 Static condensation method 239
viii Contents
6.5.4 RayleighRitz method 241

References 242
Problems 242
7. Step-by-step integration method 245

7.1 Basic idea of step-by-step integration method 245
7.2 Linear acceleration method 247
7.3 Wilson-θ method 252
7.4 Newmark method 255
7.5 Stability and accuracy of step-by-step integration method 257
Problems 266
References 266
Index 267
About the authors
Dr. Zhihui Zhou is currently an associate professor at the School of

Civil Engineering, Central South University (CSU), in China. He
received a PhD in Civil Engineering from CSU in 2007 under the super-
vision of Prof. Qingyuan Zeng. He was invited to study at the University
of Kentucky in 2014. Dr. Zhou’s research interests include train derail-
ment and dynamics of trainbridge (track) systems. He has been the prin-
cipal investigator of several research grants, including the research project
of National Natural Science Foundation of China (a study on the control
theory of running safety and comfort for high-speed trains on bridges), a
scientific research project of China’s Ministry of Railways (a study on
safety of running trains on large span cable-stayed bridges), special and
general projects of the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and
some other scientific research projects. Dr. Zhou has published over 30
journal papers as the first author, and two monographs entitled “Lectures
on dynamics of structures” and “Theory and application of train derail-
ment.” He won the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress of
Hunan Province for his study “Theory and application of train derailment”
in 2006.
Dr. Ying Wen was employed in the School of Civil Engineering, CSU,
in China, after obtaining his PhD in 2010, and he was promoted to asso-
ciate professor in 2012. He became a research associate in the Department
of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University in 2011. In 2014 Dr. Wen was invited to visit the Department
of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern
California, for a collaborative research on the problem of moving loads
on structures. After he returned to CSU in 2015, Dr. Wen was appointed
as the vice director of the Key Laboratory of Engineering Structures of
Heavy-haul Railway, Ministry of Education. Dr. Wen has interests in
fields of various structural dynamics and stability, especially nonlinear
mechanics of long-span bridges and their dynamic stability under moving
trains. Dr. Wen has published more than 20 journal papers, one of which
is listed as the Top 25 Hottest articles published in “Finite Elements in
Analysis & Design.” He has also published three Chinese monographs
about statics and dynamics of structures as a coauthor. Dr. Wen has
ix
x About the authors
received the awards of the Science and Technology Progress of Hunan

Province (2006) and Zhejiang Province (2011).
Dr. Chenzhi Cai received his BS degree in civil engineering and MS

degree in road and railway engineering from CSU, in China in 2011 and
2015, respectively. He graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University with a PhD in civil engineering in 2018 and joined the
Department of Bridge Engineering as well as the Wind Tunnel
Laboratory of CSU as an associate professor later that year. Dr. Cai’s main
research interests are the fields of noise and vibration control, train-bridge
interaction dynamics, and train-induced ground vibration isolation. He
has participated in several research projects funded by the Hong Kong
government and has also received research funding from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China and Hunan Provincial Natural
Science Foundation of China. Dr. Cai has published more than 20 papers
in international journals, and some of his work is under consideration for
acceptance by the UK CIBSE Guide.
Prof. Qingyuan Zeng is a distinguished scientist on bridge engineering at

Central South University, in China. He obtained his BS and MS degrees
from the Department of Civil Engineering, Nanchang University and
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, in 1950 and
1956, respectively. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy
of Engineering in 1999 for his great contributions to localglobal interac-
tive buckling behavior of long-span bridge structures, trainbridge inter-
action dynamics and the basic theory of train derailment. He presented
the principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in elastic sys-
tem dynamics and the “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system
matrices, which is a significant improvement of the classical theory of
structural dynamics and finite element method. Prof. Zeng has an interna-
tional reputation for his originality in the transverse vibration mechanism
and time-varying analysis method of the trainbridge system. He has
authored and coauthored more than 100 journal papers, three monographs,
and three textbooks. He received numerous awards, including the State
Science and Technology Progress Award, Distinguished Achievement
Award for Railway Science and Technology from Zhan Tianyou
Development Foundation, and Honorary Member Award from the China
Railway Society. He has supervised more than 16 MS students and 30 PhD
students in the past three decades.
Preface
Nowadays, the design of engineering structures, for example, long-span

bridges, high-rise buildings, stadiums, airport terminals, and offshore plat-
forms, seeks a large ratio of their load carrying capacity to self-weight to
achieve esthetic pleasure and economy. However, the type of these light-
weight and flexible structures will lead to a large deformation and exces-
sive vibrations under loading. In addition, these structures may suffer from
some extreme excitations, for instance, strong winds, seismic actions,
high-impact collisions, and impacts of water wave flow. Therefore, inves-
tigation of structural behaviors under dynamic loads is essential in order to
achieve a good performance of the structure when satisfying the require-
ment of designed service. The basic concept of structural dynamics is of
great help to engineers in understanding structural vibration and taking
appropriate measures.
This book introduces the fundamental concepts and basic principles of
the “dynamics of structures.” Although the book focuses on the linear
problem in structural dynamics, solutions for some nonlinear problems
have also been briefly introduced. It should be noted that random vibra-
tion is beyond the scope of this book and is not included here. The main
content of this book includes the overview of structural dynamics, the
formulation of equations of motion of systems, the analysis of dynamic
response of SDOF systems, the analysis of dynamic response of MDOF
and continuous systems, the mode superposition method, the approximate
evaluation of natural frequencies and mode shapes, and the step-by-step
integration method.
Three original contributions have been proposed in this book, namely,
the principle of total potential energy with a stationary value in elastic sys-
tem dynamics, the “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system
matrices, and the method of computer implementation in Matlab.
Moreover, this book introduces the fundamental concepts of structural
dynamics in a concise way rather than with a detailed description, which
is more efficient for abecedarians in understanding the basic concepts and
methods of vibration analysis.
Participants in the writing of this book include Zhihui Zhou, Ying
Wen, Chenzhi Cai, and Qingyuan Zeng from Central South University.
The specific division of the organization and writing of this book is as
xi
xii Preface
follows: Zhihui Zhou is responsible for the writing of Chapters 1 to 4;

Ying Wen has fulfilled Chapters 5 and 6; Chenzhi Cai has completed
Chapter 7, and Qingyuan Zeng supplied the original manuscript of the
book.
The authors wish to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to
Prof. Xiaojun Wei from Central South University, Prof. Tong Qiu from
The Pennsylvania State University, and PhD student Juanya Yu from
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for valuable advice in the
process of writing. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Lican Xie, Ms.
Manxuan Yang, Mr. Liang Zhang, Mr. Bao Zhang, Mr. Xuanyu Liao,
Mr. Chenlong Tang, Mr. Zhenhua Jian, Mr. Xiaojie Zhu, and other
graduate students from Central South University for their contributions in
different ways to the content of this book.
This book can be used as a textbook for both postgraduates and
undergraduates majoring in civil engineering, engineering mechanics,
mechanical engineering, and other related fields in general colleges and
universities. It can also be a reference for teachers, general students, and
short-term trainees in institutions of higher vocational education.
The authors cordially invite the audience of this book to contact with
us (Zhihui Zhou: zzhyy@csu.edu.cn) if you have any suggestions for
improvements and clarifications in the content organization, and even to
help identify errors. All the above efforts and comments are sincerely
acknowledged.
Zhihui Zhou
Ying Wen
Chenzhi Cai
Qingyuan Zeng
CHAPTER 1
Overview of structural dynamics

1.1 Objective of structural dynamic analysis
Dynamic analysis of the trainbridge system originated from the collapse of
the Chester Railway Bridge in the United Kingdom due to a train passing
over the bridge. In November 1940 the engineering community was aston-
ished by the dynamic instability of the Tacoma suspension bridge in the
United States under strong wind with a speed of 1720 m/s. A large
crowd of people participated in the opening ceremony of Wuhan Yangtze
River Bridge in 1957, resulting in continuous swaying of the newly opened
bridge. The swaying came to an end when the crowd went away at night.
In 2011 the administrator of the Shanghai Railway observed the excessive
transverse vibration of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge under the condi-
tion of a cargo train passing over the bridge. The transverse amplitude of
the oscillated bridge exceeded 9 mm, which led to concerns over the safety
of running trains on the bridge. Therefore the assessment of the safety and
comfort of running trains on this bridge was conducted [1,2].
Seismic activity has been relatively active in recent decades, for instance,
the Chilean earthquake in 1960, the Tangshan earthquake in China in
1976, the Mexico earthquake in 1985, the OsakaKobe earthquake in
Japan in 1995, the India earthquake in 2001, and the Sichuan earthquake
in China in 2008. In addition to serious disruption to the local economy,
these disasters threatened the safety of residents and their properties in the
concerned areas. Thus the aseismic design of infrastructures in seismically
active areas is necessary to reduce or avoid severe earthquake damage for
major projects. In addition, many airplane accidents have been caused by
the flutter of aircraft wings or the abnormal vibration of engines. In
mechanical engineering, vibrations may bring about negative effects on the
performance of some precision instruments, for instance, these vibrations
may increase abrasion and fatigue, or reduce machining accuracy and sur-
face finish. However, some manufacturing facilities, for example, transmis-
sion, screening, grinding, piling, and so on, as well as various generators and
clocks, benefit from the positive aspects of vibrations [3].
Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823704-5.00001-X Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics
The investigation of structural dynamics focuses on understanding the

basic mechanism of vibrations and presenting the corresponding proces-
sing methods. These methods can be adopted to eliminate of the negative
vibration effects of machines, prevent dynamic instability of bridges and
improve the tamping and compaction performances of the road construc-
tion machinery, and so on.
1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics

The main differences between statics and dynamics can be addressed in
the following aspects: (1) in dynamics, both the loads and responses of
structures are time-varying, which implies that, unlike static problems, the
solution of dynamics cannot be a single one. Therefore the dynamic anal-
ysis of structures presents a more complex and time-consuming process
when compared with the static analysis of structures; (2) acceleration is
significant in dynamics. The so-called inertial force produced by accelera-
tion acts in the opposite direction of the acceleration. As illustrated in
Fig. 1.1A, the internal moment and shear of the cantilever beam should
equilibrate the applied dynamic load, F(t), as well as the inertial force asso-
ciated with the acceleration. In Fig. 1.1B, the internal moment, shear, and
deflection of the cantilever beam under a static load F depend only on
the applied load itself. In general, once the inertial force accounts for a
relatively large proportion of the forces equilibrated by the elastic internal
force, the dynamic characteristics should be taken into account in the
structural analysis. When applied loads do not change significantly, the
dynamic responses are minor and the inertial forces can be neglected.
Thus the static analysis procedure could be applied at any desired instant
of time in these cases. If the exciting frequency is less than one third of
the first natural frequency of the structure, the analysis of the structure
Figure 1.1 Cantilever beam subjected to (A) dynamic load and (B) static load.
Overview of structural dynamics 3
could be treated as a static problem (a better understating of this concept

can be achieved by means of Fig. 3.14); (3) damping is also an indispens-
able factor in dynamic problems. Energy will be dissipated in the vibration
of structures. Structural damping is frequently ignored in the analysis of
the natural dynamic properties and the dynamic response over a relatively
short duration (such as the action of impulsive loads). However, structural
damping must be taken into account when large damping exists or vibra-
tion lasts a long period, as well as in the analysis of the vibration in the
resonance region.
1.3 Classification of vibrations

1. The vibrations could be classified as either deterministic or random
vibrations according to the deterministic or random characteristics of
the dynamic responses.
a. Deterministic vibration: the structural responses are deterministic
functions of time due to the determined load and system.
b. Random vibration: the structural responses are random due to the
uncertainty of load or system. However, the responses usually comply
with certain statistical rules and can be analyzed with statistical pro-
bability methods. For instance, the vibrations of aircraft owing
to aerodynamic noise, the vibrations of the traintrackbridge system
caused by track irregularity, etc., are all regarded as random vibrations.
2. The vibrations could be classified as either free vibrations, forced vibra-
tions, self-excited vibrations, or parametric vibrations.
a. Free vibration: external perturbation makes the system deviate
from the initial equilibrium position or have initial velocity. When
the perturbation is rapidly removed, the system will vibrate due to
initial displacement or velocity, which is called free vibration.
b. Forced vibration: the vibration of the structure is caused by a contin-
uously applied load, which is called forced vibration. The response
of a forced vibration consists of two components. One is the tran-
sient response related to the initial conditions and the other is the
steady-state response with the same frequency as the applied load.
Since transient vibrations decay rapidly due to the damping effect,
forced vibrations are often referred to as steady-state vibration.
c. Self-excited vibration: the vibration is excited and controlled by
the system motion itself, which is called self-excited vibration.
In the analysis of self-excited vibrations, the components of the
system should be determined first. Then, the interaction among

these components should be fully understood, as well as the pro-
cess of the input and dissipation of system energy. In self-excited
vibrations, energy is obtained from the periodic vibration of a part
of the system. The excitation is a function of the displacement,
velocity and acceleration of the system. It is common to encounter
self-excited vibration phenomena in nature, engineering, and daily
life, for example, the piston motion of engines, the working prin-
ciple of clocks, the wind-induced motion of the Tacoma Bridge,
and the vibration of leaves in the breeze.
Through the observation of the swing of leaves under the excita-
tion of the wind, it can be noted that the wind angle of leaves stand-
ing against the wind will be changed due to bending of branches.
Therefore part of the air flow along the leaves and the wind pressure
on the leaves would be reduced. However, the elastic resistance of
the branch forces the leaves to return to their initial positions. Such a
process is repeated over and over. It can be concluded from the
above description that the external wind itself does not vary periodi-
cally, while the wind excitation on the leaves is periodic. This is
because the motion of the leaves controls the wind actions on the
leaves. This type of vibration is referred to as self-excited vibration.
d. Parametric vibration: system parameters change with a certain rule
due to the action of applied load, and the vibration is excited by the
changing system parameters, which is called parametric vibration.
The motion of a single pendulum with the time-varying length is
a typical example, as illustrated in Fig. 1.2A. Considering a small-
amplitude motion of a single pendulum,
its equation of motion
could be derived as ϕ€ 1 2 _l=l ϕ_ 1 g=l ϕ 5 0 (ϕ is the rotation of
the pendulum; l is the time-varying length of the pendulum; g is
the acceleration of gravity; the detailed derivation can be found in
Example 2.6). It can be observed from the equation that the system
parameters vary with the length of the pendulum l. The external
force is not present in the load term of the equation of motion.
Another typical example is the transverse vibration of a straight bar
to a periodic axial force, as shown in Fig. 1.2B. The periodic axial
force results in periodic variation of parameters in the equation of
transverse bending (detailed information can be found in Chapter 17
of Ref. [4]), which leads to the vibration of the straight bar in the
transverse direction. Once the frequency of the applied force ω, and
the natural frequency associated with transverse bending of the bar,

ω, satisfy the relation of ω 5 2ω=K, K 5 1; 2; ?, the transverse
amplitude of the bar would become larger and larger and instability
would occur eventually. That is parametric resonance of the bar in
the transverse direction due to the periodic excitation in the direc-
tion of the bar axis, as shown in Fig. 1.2C.
3. According to the linear or nonlinear differential equations of a system,
the vibrations can be categorized into linear vibrations and nonlinear
vibrations:
a. Linear vibration: the inertial force, damping force, and elastic resis-
tance of the system are linearly related to the acceleration, velocity,
and displacement, respectively. The vibration of a system is governed
by a linear differential equation. Instead of second- and higher-order
terms, only the first-order terms with respect to acceleration, veloc-
ity, and displacement are present in the differential equation. This
book focuses on the investigation of the linear vibration.
b. Nonlinear vibration: in contrast to the linear vibration, the inertial
force, damping force, or elastic resistance of the system are nonlinear
with respect to acceleration, velocity, or displacement, respectively,
and the corresponding vibration can only be governed by nonlinear
differential equations. For instance, both the collapse of infrastructure
due to earthquakes and large amplitude vibration of flexible struc-
tures due to strong winds are examples of the nonlinear vibration.
Figure 1.2 Examples and response characteristics of parametric vibration: (A) motion
of a single pendulum with time-varying length; (B) transverse instability of a straight
bar; (C) vibration response due to parametric vibration.
1.4 Vibration problems in engineering

In the analysis of vibration, the investigated object (the engineering struc-
ture) is generally referred to as the vibrating system, and can be described
by the mass M, stiffness K, and damping C. The external loads that act on
a system or the factors that lead to the vibration of a system are called the
excitation or input. The dynamic responses of the system subjected to
such an excitation or input, for instance, accelerations, velocities, and dis-
placements, are regarded as the responses or output. The excitation (input)
is connected with the responses (output) by means of the properties of the
vibration system, as shown in Fig. 1.3.
The investigation of system vibration boils down to the analysis of the
relationships among the system, input, and output. Theoretically, once two
of these three factors are determined, the remaining one can be obtained.
Therefore vibration problems in engineering can be classified into the follow-
ing four types:
1. Response analysis: based on the given physical properties of the structural
system and the applied loads, the responses, including the acceleration,
velocity, and displacement, etc., are solved. Response analysis provides
basic information for analyzing the strength, stiffness, and vibration state
of a system. This book mainly focuses on the response analysis.
2. Environment prediction: based on the given properties and responses of
the structural system, the input is to be determined, and the characteristics
of the environment where the system is located may be identified.
3. System identification: the input and output are known, that is, the
dynamic loads and responses of the system are known. Therefore the
properties of the system can be obtained by using the system identifi-
cation method. The identified parameters include both physical prop-
erties (mass, stiffness, damping, etc.) and modal parameters (natural
frequencies and mode shapes).
4. System design: in many cases of engineering applications, the proper-
ties of the system can be designed based on the given input and
required criteria of responses. In general, the system design depends on
the response analysis. System design and response analysis are often
conducted alternately in practical engineering.
Figure 1.3 Three factors representing system vibration.

1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures

1.5.1 Description of system configuration
Evaluation of the system responses of is a significant objective in structural
dynamics. The prerequisite for finding the solutions of the structural
responses is to formulate the dynamic equilibrium equation, that is, the equa-
tion of motion of the system, by considering the inertial, damping, elastic,
and external forces. The inertial, damping, and elastic forces are directly
related to the displacements, velocities, and accelerations of the system, as
well as its physical properties. Therefore it is necessary to describe the config-
uration of the system at any instant of time. Generally, a vibration configura-
tion is determined from the positions of all particles of the system. Practical
structures are generally continuous systems, and infinite displacement variables
are required to represent their vibration configuration theoretically. For
example, the position coordinates v k , k 5 1; 2; ?, of all continuous particles
distributing along the length of the beam should be obtained for the sake of
accurate description of the vibration of the simply supported beam in the
vertical plane, as shown in Fig. 1.4A. However, it is difficult and unnecessary
to do so in vibration analysis of engineering structures. An approximate esti-
mate of structural configuration can often satisfy the requirement of accuracy
in practical engineering. It is both efficient and possible to discretize a simply
supported beam into finite elements and use the displacements of nodes to
describe the configuration of the beam, as shown in Fig. 1.4B. The selection
of the appropriate coordinates that represent vibration configuration of struc-
tures is the preliminary and most important step for the modeling of practical
structures, which is associated with computational effort and accuracy.
1.5.2 Analysis of excitation

Excitation is defined as the external actions which induce structural vibra-
tions. The excitation of structural vibration is complex and affected by
many random factors. For instance, the dynamic actions of a train running
Figure 1.4 Configuration of a simply supported beam: (A) accurate description;

(B) approximate description using the finite element method.
on a bridge include the wheelrail contact forces caused by the hunting

movement of wheelsets, eccentric loads of vehicles, and additional forces
generated by track irregularities. It is difficult to identify these excitations
with specific expressions quantitatively; however, these excitations satisfy
certain statistical rules. Although seismic acceleration waves can be adopted
for the input of earthquake actions on structures, there are no uniform
mathematical models for seismic acceleration waves for different regions,
even for earthquakes of the same magnitude. The seismic actions on the
structure are random, as well as the wind actions. These dynamic loads are
called random loads.
Some special excitations are present in engineering, which can be
described with sufficient precision by a specific time-domain function.
Harmonic excitation caused by the eccentric rotor with a constant angular
speed is a typical example of this.
According to whether excitations can be described by a deterministic
mathematical model or not, excitations can be classified into two types,
namely, random dynamic load and prescribed dynamic load.
1. Random dynamic load: a time-varying random dynamic load cannot
be represented deterministically. The differences of loads in each
experiment are obvious. However, probability theory can be adopted
to describe the statistical characteristics of these loads.
2. Prescribed dynamic load: the time variation of a deterministic dynamic
load is specified. The obtained results of these kinds of loads in different
experiments are nearly identical when considering the experimental
error. Fig. 1.5 shows some typical prescribed dynamic loads.
Figure 1.5 Typical prescribed dynamic loads: (A) harmonic load; (B) arbitrary periodic
load; (C) impulsive load; (D) arbitrary nonperiodic load.
Prescribed dynamic loads include both periodic and nonperiodic loads.

Periodic loads can be categorized into simple harmonic loads (Fig. 1.5A)
and arbitrary periodic loads (Fig. 1.5B). Nonperiodic loads can be catego-
rized as impulsive loads with an extremely short duration (such as a shock
wave and explosion wave, as shown in Fig. 1.5C), and arbitrary nonperio-
dic loads with a specified duration (such as measured seismic excitations,
as illustrated in Fig. 1.5D, which is regarded as a prescribed dynamic load
in the analysis of deterministic vibrations).
1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation

The mechanism of energy dissipation is complex and not fully under-
stood. Energy dissipation in structural vibration is related to the damping
force. The damping force is mainly caused by the internal friction due to
the deforming of solid material, the friction at connection points of struc-
tures (such as the friction at bolt joints of steel structures), the opening
and closing of microcracks in concrete, and the friction due to external
media around structures (such as the effects of air and fluids), etc. In real-
ity, it is difficult to simulate damping accurately due to the combined
effects of several factors. If only one kind of damping dominates the
effects, it would be possible to find a reasonable model for the damping
force. For instance, viscous damping force is proportional to the magni-
tude of velocity, that is, F vd 5 c_v , and it opposes the velocity. Detailed
information about the damping will be given in Section 3.4.
1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system

An important task for structural dynamics is to obtain the displacements
that vary with time or other responses to prescribed loads. Approximate
methods (such as the finite element method) considering a certain number
of degrees of freedom can generally meet the accuracy requirements for
most structures. Thus the problem boils down to solving the time history
of these selected displacement variables. The mathematical expression of
dynamic displacements is referred to as the equation of motion of a struc-
tural system. It is also known as the dynamic equilibrium equation once
the inertial force is introduced. By solving the equation, the displacements
and other responses can be obtained. The vibration characteristics
of a multidegree-of-freedom system can be expressed by the following
equation:
M q€ 1 C q_ 1 Kq 5 Q (1.1)
where q is the generalized displacement vector; q_ is the generalized veloc-

ity vector; q€ is the generalized acceleration vector; M is the mass matrix;
C is the damping matrix; K is the stiffness matrix; and Q is the general-
ized force vector.
1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion

The theory for the linear equation of motion of a system is comparatively
mature. It can be categorized into the following two types:
1. Solution for linear equation of motion with constant coefficients: the
main methods include numerical integration method (such as the
Euler method or RungeKutta method), variational method, mode-
superposition method, and weighted residual method.
2. Solution for linear equation of motion with variable coefficients: this
is mainly tackled by the variational method, step-by-step integration
method, and weighted residual method.
There is no general method available for solving a nonlinear equation of
motion yet. The small parameter method, variational method, and weighted
residual method are commonly applied to solve a nonlinear equation of
motion. With the rapid development of computers, the step-by-step integra-
tion method has become the dominant algorithm.
1.5.6 Vibration tests

The main purpose of vibration tests is to validate the theoretical results,
modify the theoretical model, and obtain the parameters required by the
theoretical analysis. The natural frequencies, mode shapes, damping ratio,
and seismic acceleration wave are among the test items. These parameters
are the basis of the analysis of structural dynamics.
Problems
1.1 What are the main differences between the dynamic and static analy-
sis of structures?
1.2 What are the main differences between prescribed and random
dynamic loads? How should one express these two kinds of loads in
mathematics?
1.3 What are the common problems related to engineering vibration
analysis and what relationships do they have?
1.4 According to the characteristics of parametric vibration and self-excited
vibration, which category does the motion of swing belong to?
References
[1] Zeng Q, Guo X. Theory of vibration analysis of train-bridge time-varying system and
its application. Beijing: China Railway Press; 1999.
[2] Zeng Q, Xiang J, Zhou Z, Lou P. Theory of train derailment analysis and its applica-
tion. Changsha: Central South University Press; 2006.
[3] Zhou Z, Wen Y, Zeng Q. Lectures on dynamics of structures. 2nd ed. Beijing: China
Communications Press Co., Ltd; 2017.
[4] Clough RW, Penzien J. Dynamics of structures. 3rd ed. Berkeley, CA: Computers &
Structures, Inc; 2003.
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CHAPTER 2
Formulation of equations of
motion of systems
The preliminary step for estimating structural response is to formulate the
equation of motion of a structural system. This chapter focuses on the
basic concepts of structural dynamics and several methods for formulating
the equation of motion. These methods include (1) the direct equilibrium
method, (2) the principle of virtual displacements, (3) Lagrange’s equa-
tions, (4) Hamilton’s principle, (5) the principle of total potential energy
with a stationary value in elastic system dynamics, and (6) the “set-in-
right-position” rule for assembling system matrices and the method of
computer implementation in Matlab.
First, the concept of system constraint and the representation of the
configuration of a system will be introduced in this chapter. Then, the prin-
ciples and applications of the aforementioned six methods will be discussed.
2.1 System constraints

The earth is often selected as the reference frame in the vibration analysis of
systems. The chosen Cartesian coordinate system is fixed on the Earth, as
illustrated in Fig. 2.1. This kind of coordinate system is called a basic coor-
dinate system. The notation O represents the origin of the coordinate
Figure 2.1 Position of a particle in the basic coordinate system.
Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823704-5.00002-1 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 13
system. Bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures are considered to be

fixed on the earth and are incapable of moving freely. The motions of these
structures should satisfy external constraint conditions. Such kinds of systems
are referred to as constrained systems of particles. In contrast, aircrafts, birds,
etc., can move freely in all directions relative to the earth (i.e., the basic
coordinate system). This kind of system is called a free system of particles.
Each particle, which satisfies the requirements of internal constraints, can
move freely in all directions relative to the basic coordinate system.
A constraint could be defined as a geometric or kinematic restriction
imposed on the position and/or velocity of a particle. It is commonly
expressed by a constraint equation. The boundary conditions of a struc-
ture are typical examples of constraint equations. The following is a brief
introduction of constraint classifications.
1. Constraints can be categorized as either geometric or kinematic constraints
according to the characteristics of state variables in constraint equations.
Geometric constraint: Only the positions of the particles of a system
are restricted. For example, the coordinates of the particle m, x, y, z, as
shown in Fig. 2.2, should satisfy the following equation
x2 1 y2 1 z2 5 l 2 (2.1)
where l represents the length of the rigid rod. Eq. (2.1) is known as the
geometric constraint equation. Therefore the position coordinates of the
particle m at any instant of time t, xðtÞ, yðtÞ, zðtÞ, are not independent.
Only two of them are independent.
Kinematic constraint: Both the position and velocity of the particles of
a system are restricted. A cylinder moves along the positive direction
of the x axis, as shown in Fig. 2.3. It should be noted that the position of
the center of the cylinder C must satisfy the following relationship
zC 5 R (2.2)
Figure 2.2 Particle constrained by a rigid rod.

Formulation of equations of motion of systems 15
Figure 2.3 Cylinder rolling horizontally.
Figure 2.4 Motion of an ice skate in a plane.
where zC is the position of the center of cylinder along the z axis, and R
is the radius of the cylinder.
Eq. (2.2) is a geometric constraint equation. Once the cylinder can
only roll without sliding, the velocity of the contact point D on the
ground shall equal zero, which could be expressed as
x_ C 2 Rϕ_ 5 0 (2.3)
where x_ C is the velocity of the center of cylinder along the x axis, and ϕ_
is the angular velocity of the cylinder.
Eq. (2.3) is a kinematic constraint equation. Eq. (2.3) could be trans-
formed into xC 5 Rϕ 1 c (c is an integral constant; ϕ is the rotation of the
cylinder) by integration, which is a geometric constraint equation. The
motion of an ice skate on the ground can be simplified to the motion of
the rod AB in a plane, as shown in Fig. 2.4. The velocity vC of the center
of mass C is always along the direction of rod AB. Therefore the velocity
components x_ C and y_ C along the direction of the x and y axes should
satisfy the following relationship

y_ C
5 tan θ or x_ C sin θ 2 y_ C cos θ 5 0
x_ C
where θ is the rotation angle of rod AB measured from the x axis.
The above equation is a kinematic constraint equation. Due to the
angle θ varying with the motion of the system, the above equation cannot
be integrated to obtain a geometric constraint relation. More knowledge
about transforming kinematic constraint equations into geometric con-
straint equations can be found in Ref. [1].
2. Constraints can be categorized as either steady or unsteady constraints
according to whether the time variable is explicitly present in the con-
straint equation or not.
Steady constraint: Time variable t is not present in the constraint equa-
tion. Eqs. (2.1), (2.2), and (2.3) belong to the steady constraints.
Consider a system of l particles, the steady constraint equation could
be expressed as follows:
f c ðr 1 ; ?; r l ;_r 1 ; ?; r_l Þ 5 0
(2.4)
or f c ðx1 ;y1 ;z1 ;?;xl ;yl ;zl ;_x1 ;_y1 ;_z1 ;?;_xl ;_yl ;_zl Þ 5 0
where r k is the position vector of the kth particle, r_k is the velocity vector
of the kth particle, xk ; yk ; zk are the coordinate components of the kth
particle in the basic coordinate system, and x_ k ; y_ k ; z_ k are the velocity com-
ponents of the kth particle in the basic coordinate system, where
k 5 1; 2; ?; l.
Unsteady constraint: Time t is an explicit variable in constraint
equations. For example, Fig. 2.5 shows a planar pendulum dangled at
point j. The point j moves in terms of sine function y0 5 a sin ωt along
Figure 2.5 Motion of a planar pendulum.

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Title: Early autumn
Author: Louis Bromfield
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY

AUTUMN ***
Chapter I, Chapter II
Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter
VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X.
Louis Bromfield
EARLY AUTUMN
Copyright, 1926, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All rights reserved
FOR
LAURA CANFIELD WOOD
EARLY AUTUMN
CHAPTER I
There was a ball in the old Pentland house because for the first time in
nearly forty years there was a young girl in the family to be introduced to
the polite world of Boston and to the elect who had been asked to come on
from New York and Philadelphia. So the old house was all bedizened with
lanterns and bunches of late spring flowers, and in the bare, white-painted,
dignified hallway a negro band, hidden discreetly by flowers, sat making
noisy, obscene music.
Sybil Pentland was eighteen and lately returned from School in Paris,
whither she had been sent against the advice of the conservative members
of her own family, which, it might have been said, included in its
connections most of Boston. Already her great-aunt, Mrs. Cassandra
Struthers, a formidable woman, had gone through the list of eligible young
men—the cousins and connections who were presentable and possessed of
fortunes worthy of consideration by a family so solidly rich as the
Pentlands. It was toward this end that the ball had been launched and the
whole countryside invited, young and old, spry and infirm, middle-aged and
dowdy—toward this end and with the idea of showing the world that the
family had lost none of its prestige for all the lack of young people in its
ranks. For this prestige had once been of national proportions, though now
it had shrunk until the Pentland name was little known outside New
England. Rather, it might have been said that the nation had run away from
New England and the Pentland family, leaving it stranded and almost
forgotten by the side of the path which marked an unruly, almost barbaric
progress away from all that the Pentland family and the old house
represented.
Sybil’s grandfather had seen to it that there was plenty of champagne;
and there were tables piled with salads and cold lobster and sandwiches and
hot chicken in chafing-dishes. It was as if a family whose whole history had
been marked by thrift and caution had suddenly cast to the winds all
semblance of restraint in a heroic gesture toward splendor.
But in some way, the gesture seemed to be failing. The negro music
sounded wild and spirited, but also indiscreet and out of place in a house so
old and solemn. A few men and one or two women known for their
fondness for drink consumed a great deal of champagne, but only dulness
came of it, dulness and a kind of dead despair. The rich, the splendorous,
the gorgeous, the barbaric, had no place in rooms where the kind Mr.
Longfellow and the immortal Messrs. Emerson and Lowell had once sat
and talked of life. In a hallway, beneath the gaze of a row of ancestors
remarkable for the grimness of their faces, the music appeared to lose its
quality of abandon; it did not belong in this genteel world. On the fringes of
the party there was some drunkenness among the undergraduates imported
from Cambridge, but there was very little gaiety. The champagne fell upon
barren ground. The party drooped.
Though the affair was given primarily to place Sybil Pentland upon the
matrimonial market of this compact world, it served, too, as an introduction
for Thérèse Callendar, who had come to spend the summer at Brook
Cottage across the stony meadows on the other side of the river from
Pentlands; and as a reintroduction of her mother, a far more vivid and
remarkable person. Durham and the countryside thereabouts was familiar
enough to her, for she had been born there and passed her childhood within
sight of the spire of the Durham town meeting-house. And now, after an
absence of twenty years, she had come back out of a world which her own
people—the people of her childhood—considered strange and ungenteel.
Her world was one filled with queer people, a world remote from the quiet
old house at Pentlands and the great brownstone houses of Commonwealth
Avenue and Beacon Street. Indeed, it was this woman, Sabine Callendar,
who seemed to have stolen all the thunder at the ball; beside her, neither of
the young girls, her own daughter nor Sybil Pentland, appeared to attract
any great interest. It was Sabine whom every one noticed, acquaintances of
her childhood because they were devoured by curiosity concerning those
missing twenty years, and strangers because she was the most picturesque
and arresting figure at the ball.
It was not that she surrounded herself by adoring young men eager to
dance with her. She was, after all, a woman of forty-six, and she had no
tolerance for mooning boys whose conversation was limited to bootlegging
and college clubs. It was a success of a singular sort, a triumph of
indifference.
People like Aunt Cassie Struthers remembered her as a shy and awkward
young girl with a plain face, a good figure and brick-red hair which twenty
years ago had been spoken of as “Poor Sabine’s ugly red hair.” She was a
girl in those days who suffered miserably at balls and dinners, who shrank
from all social life and preferred solitude. And now, here she was—returned
—a tall woman of forty-six, with the same splendid figure, the same long
nose and green eyes set a trifle too near each other, but a woman so striking
in appearance and the confidence of her bearing that she managed somehow
to dim the success even of younger, prettier women and virtually to
extinguish the embryonic young things in pink-and-white tulle. Moving
about indolently from room to room, greeting the people who had known
her as a girl, addressing here and there an acquaintance which she had made
in the course of the queer, independent, nomadic life she had led since
divorcing her husband, there was an arrogance in her very walk that
frightened the young and produced in the older members of Durham
community (all the cousins and connections and indefinable relatives), a
sense of profound irritation. Once she had been one of them, and now she
seemed completely independent of them all, a traitress who had flung to the
winds all the little rules of life drilled into her by Aunt Cassie and other
aunts and cousins in the days when she had been an awkward, homely little
girl with shocking red hair. Once she had belonged to this tight little world,
and now she had returned—a woman who should have been defeated and a
little declassée and somehow, irritatingly, was not. Instead, she was a
“figure” much sought after in the world, enveloped by the mysterious cloud
of esteem which surrounds such persons—a woman, in short, who was able
to pick her friends from the ranks of distinguished and even celebrated
people. It was not only because this was true, but because people like Aunt
Cassie knew it was true, that she aroused interest and even indignation. She
had turned her back upon them all and no awful fate had overtaken her;
instead, she had taken a firm hold upon life and made of it a fine, even a
glittering, success; and this is a thing which is not easily forgiven.
As she moved through the big rooms—complete and perfect from her
superbly done, burnished red hair to the tips of her silver slippers—there
was about her an assurance and an air of confidence in her own perfection
that bordered upon insolence. There was a hard radiance and beauty in the
brilliant green dress and the thin chain of diamonds that dimmed all of the
others, that made most of the women seem dowdy and put together with
pins. Undoubtedly her presence also served to dampen the gaiety. One knew
from the look in the disdainful green eyes and the faint mocking smile on
the frankly painted red mouth that she was aware of the effect she made and
was delighted with her triumph. Wherever she went, always escorted by
some man she had chosen with the air of conferring a favor, a little stir
preceded her. She was indeed very disagreeable....
If she had a rival in all the crowd that filled the echoing old house, it was
Olivia Pentland—Sybil’s mother—who moved about, alone most of the
time, watching her guests, acutely conscious that the ball was not all it
should have been. There was about her nothing flamboyant and arresting,
nothing which glittered with the worldly hardness of the green dress and the
diamonds and burnished red hair of Sabine Callendar; she was, rather, a soft
woman, of gentleness and poise, whose dark beauty conquered in a slower,
more subtle fashion. You did not notice her at once among all the guests;
you became aware of her slowly, as if her presence had the effect of stealing
over you with the vagueness of a perfume. Suddenly you marked her from
among all the others ... with a sense of faint excitement ... a pale white face,
framed by smooth black hair drawn back low over the brows in a small knot
at the back of her head. You noticed the clear, frank blue eyes, that in some
lights seemed almost black, and most of all you noticed when she spoke
that her voice was low, warm, and in a way irresistible, a voice with a
hundred shades of color. She had a way, too, of laughing, when she was
struck by the absurdity of something, that was like a child. One knew her at
once for a great lady. It was impossible to believe that she was nearly forty
and the mother of Sybil and a boy of fifteen.
Circumstance and a wisdom of her own had made of her a woman who
seemed inactive and self-effacing. She had a manner of doing things
effortlessly, with a great quietness, and yet, after one came to know her, one
felt that she missed little which took place within sight or hearing—not only
the obvious things which any stupid person might have noticed, but the
subtle, indefinite currents which passed from one person to another. She
possessed, it seemed, a marvelous gift for smoothing out troubles. A
security, of the sort which often marks those who suffer from a too great
awareness, enveloped and preceded her, turning to calm all the troubled
world about her. Yet she was disturbing, too, in an odd, indefinable way.
There was always a remoteness and a mystery, a sense almost of the fey. It
was only after one had known her for a long time, enveloped in the
quietness of her pleasant presence, that a faint sense of uneasiness was
born. It would occur to you, with the surprise almost of a shock, that the
woman you saw before you, the woman who was so gentle and serene, was
not Olivia Pentland at all, but a kind of clay figure which concealed, far
beneath the veneer of charm, a woman you did not know at all, who was
remote and sad and perhaps lonely. In the end, she disturbed the person of
discernment far more profoundly than the glittering, disagreeable Sabine
Callendar.
In the midst of the noise and confusion of the ball, she had been moving
about, now in this big room, now in that one, talking quietly to her guests,
watching them, seeing that all went well; and, like all the others, she was
fascinated at the spectacle of Sabine’s rebellion and triumph, perhaps even a
little amused at the childishness of such defiance in a woman of forty-six
who was clever, independent and even distinguished, who need not have
troubled to flaunt her success.
Watching Sabine, whom she knew intimately enough, she had guessed
that underneath the shell made so superbly by hairdresser, couturier and
jeweler there lay hidden an awkward, red-haired little girl who was having
her revenge now, walking roughshod over all the prejudices and traditions
of such people as Aunt Cassie and John Pentland and Cousin Struthers
Smallwood, D.D., whom Sabine always called “the Apostle to the Genteel.”
It was almost, thought Olivia, as if Sabine, even after an exile of twenty
years, was still afraid of them and that curious, undefeatable power which
they represented.
But Sabine, she knew, was observing the party at the same time. She had
watched her all the evening in the act of “absorbing” it; she knew that when
Sabine walked across from Brook Cottage the next day, she would know
everything that had happened at the ball, for she had a passion for
inspecting life. Beneath the stony mask of indifference there boiled a
perpetual and passionate interest in the intricacies of human affairs. Sabine
herself had once described it as “the curse of analysis which took all the
zest out of life.”
She was fond of Sabine as a creature unique in the realm of her
experience, one who was amusing and actually made fetishes of truth and
reality. She had a way of turning her intellect (for it was really a great
intellect) upon some tangled, hopeless situation to dissolve it somehow into
its proper elements and make it appear suddenly clear, uncomplicated and,
more often than not, unpleasant; because the truth was not always a sweet
and pleasant thing.
2
No one suffered more keenly from Sabine’s triumphant return than the
invincible Aunt Cassie. In a way, she had always looked upon Sabine, even
in the long years of her voluntary exile from the delights of Durham, as her
own property, much as she might have looked upon a dog, if, indeed, the
old lady had been able to bear the society of anything so untidy as a dog.
Childless herself, she had exercised all her theories of upbringing upon the
unfortunate orphaned little daughter of her husband’s brother.
At the moment, the old lady sat half-way down the white stairs, her
sharp, black eyes surveying the ball with a faint air of disapproval. The
noisy music made her nervous and uneasy, and the way young girls had of
using paint and powder seemed to her cheap and common. “One might as
well brush one’s teeth at the dinner-table.” Secretly, she kept comparing
everything with the ball given for herself forty years earlier, an event which
had resulted at length in the capture of Mr. Struthers. Dressed economically
(for she made it a point of honor to live on the income of her income), and
in mourning for a husband dead eight years earlier, she resembled a
dignified but slightly uneasy crow perched on a fence.
It was Sabine who observed that Aunt Cassie and her “lady companion,”
Miss Peavey, sitting on the steps together, resembled a crow and a pouter
pigeon. Miss Peavey was not only fat, she was actually bulbous—one of
those women inclined by nature toward “flesh,” who would have been fat
on a diet of sawdust and distilled water; and she had come into the family
life nearly thirty years earlier as a companion, a kind of slave, to divert
Aunt Cassie during the long period of her invalidism. She had remained
there ever since, taking the place of a husband who was dead and children
who had never been born.
There was something childlike about Miss Peavey—some people said
that she was not quite bright—but she suited Aunt Cassie to a T, for she was
as submissive as a child and wholly dependent in a financial sense. Aunt
Cassie even gave her enough to make up for the losses she incurred by
keeping a small shop in Boston devoted to the sale of “artistic” pottery.
Miss Peavey was a lady, and though penniless, was “well connected” in
Boston. At sixty she had grown too heavy for her birdlike little feet and so
took very little exercise. To-night she was dressed in a very fancy gown
covered with lace and sequins and passementerie, rather in the mode which
some one had told her was her style in the far-off days of her girlhood. Her
hair was streaked with gray and cut short in a shaggy, uneven fashion; not,
however, because short hair was chic, but because she had cut it ten years
before short hair had been heard of, in a sudden futile gesture of freedom at
the terrible moment she made her one feeble attempt to escape Aunt Cassie
and lead her own life. She had come back in the end, when her poor savings
gave out and bankruptcy faced her, to be received by Aunt Cassie with
dignified sighs and flutters as a returned and repentant prodigal. In this rôle
she had lived ever since in a state of complete subjection. She was Aunt
Cassie’s creature now, to go where Aunt Cassie ordered, to do as she was
bid, to be an ear-piece when there was at hand no one more worthy of
address.
At the sight of Sabine’s green dress and red hair moving through the big
hall below them, Aunt Cassie said, with a gleam in her eye: “Sabine seems
to be worried about her daughter. The poor child doesn’t seem to be having
a success, but I suppose it’s no wonder. The poor thing is very plain. I
suppose she got the sallow skin from her father. He was part Greek and
French.... Sabine was never popular as a young girl herself.”
And she fell to speculating for the hundredth time on the little-known
circumstances of Sabine’s unhappy marriage and divorce, turning the
morsels over and over again with a variety of speculation and the
interjection of much pious phraseology; for in Aunt Cassie’s speech God
seemed to have a hand in everything. He had a way of delivering trials and
blessings indiscriminately, and so in the end became responsible for
everything.
Indeed, she grew a bit spiteful about Sabine, for there was in the back of
her mind the memory of an encounter, a day or two earlier, when she had
been put completely to rout. It was seldom that Aunt Cassie met any one
who was a match for her, and when such an encounter took place the
memory of it rankled until she found some means of subduing the offender.
With Miss Peavey she was completely frank, for through long service this
plump, elderly virgin had come to be a sort of confessor in whose presence
Aunt Cassie wore no mask. She was always saying, “Don’t mind Miss
Peavey. She doesn’t matter.”
“I find Sabine extremely hard and worldly,” she was saying. “I would
never know her for the same modest young girl she was on leaving me.”
She sighed abysmally and continued, “But, then, we mustn’t judge. I
suppose the poor girl has had a great deal of misery. I pity her to the depths
of my heart!”
In Aunt Cassie’s speeches, in every phrase, there was always a certain
mild theatrical overtone as if she sought constantly to cast a sort of
melodramatic haze over all she said. Nothing was ever stated simply.
Everything from the sight of a pot of sour cream to the death of her husband
affected her extravagantly, to the depths of her soul.
But this brought no response from Miss Peavey, who seemed lost in the
excitement of watching the young people, her round candid eyes shining
through her pince-nez with the eagerness of one who has spent her whole
life as a “lady companion.” At moments like this, Aunt Cassie felt that Miss
Peavey was not quite bright, and sometimes said so.
Undiscouraged, she went on. “Olivia looks bad, too, to-night ... very
tired and worn. I don’t like those circles under her eyes.... I’ve thought for a
long time that she was unhappy about something.”
But Miss Peavey’s volatile nature continued to lose itself completely in
the spectacle of young girls who were so different from the girls of her day;
and in the fascinating sight of Mr. Hoskins, a fat, sentimental, middle-aged
neighbor who had taken a glass too much champagne and was talking
archly to the patient Olivia. Miss Peavey had quite forgotten herself in the
midst of so much gaiety. She did not even see the glances of Aunt Cassie in
her direction—glances which plainly said, “Wait until I get you alone!”
For a long time Aunt Cassie had been brooding over what she called
“Olivia’s strange behavior.” It was a thing which she had noticed for the
first time a month or two earlier when Olivia, in the midst of one of Aunt
Cassie’s morning calls, had begun suddenly, quietly, to weep and had left
the room without a word of explanation. It had gone from bad to worse
lately; she felt Olivia slipping away from all control directly in opposition
to her own benevolent advice. There was the matter of this very ball. Olivia
had ignored her counsels of economy and thrift, and now Aunt Cassie was
suffering, as if the champagne which flowed so freely were blood drawn
from her own veins. Not for a century, since Savina Pentland purchased a
parure of pearls and emeralds, had so much Pentland money been expended
at one time on mere pleasure.
She disapproved, too, of the youthfulness of Olivia and of Sabine.
Women of their ages ought not to look so fresh and young. There was
something vulgar, even a little improper, in a woman like Sabine who at
forty-six looked thirty-five. At thirty, Aunt Cassie herself had settled down
as a middle-aged woman, and since then she had not changed greatly. At
sixty-five, “childless and alone in the world” (save, of course, for Miss
Peavey), she was much the same as she had been at thirty in the rôle of wife
to the “trying Mr. Struthers.” The only change had been her recovery from a
state of semi-invalidism, a miracle occurring simultaneously with the
passing of Mr. Struthers.
She had never quite forgiven Olivia for being an outsider who had come
into the intricate web of life at Pentlands out of (of all places) Chicago.
Wisps of mystery and a faint sense of the alien had clung to her ever since.
Of course, it wasn’t to be expected that Olivia could understand entirely
what it meant to marry into a family whose history was so closely woven
into that of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the life of Boston. What
could it mean to Olivia that Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Lowell and Dr.
Holmes had often spent weeks at Pentlands? That Mr. Emerson himself had
come there for week-ends? Still (Aunt Cassie admitted to herself), Olivia
had done remarkably well. She had been wise enough to watch and wait
and not go ahead strewing her path with blunders.
Into the midst of these thoughts the figure of Olivia herself appeared,
moving toward the stairway, walking beside Sabine. They were laughing
over something, Sabine in the sly, mocking way she had, and Olivia
mischievously, with a suspicious twinkle in her eyes. Aunt Cassie was filled
with an awful feeling that they were sharing some joke about the people at
the ball, perhaps even about herself and Miss Peavey. Since Sabine had
returned, she felt that Olivia had grown even more strange and rebellious;
nevertheless, she admitted to herself that there was a distinction about them
both. She preferred the quiet distinction of Olivia to the violence of the
impression made by the glittering Sabine. The old lady sensed the
distinction, but, belonging to a generation which lived upon emotion rather
than analysis, she did not get to the root of it. She did not see that one felt at
once on seeing Olivia, “Here is a lady!”—perhaps, in the true sense of the
word, the only lady in the room. There was a gentleness about her and a
softness and a proud sort of poise—all qualities of which Aunt Cassie
approved; it was the air of mystery which upset the old lady. One never
knew quite what Olivia was thinking. She was so gentle and soft-spoken.
Sometimes of late, when pressing Olivia too hotly, Aunt Cassie, aware of
rousing something indefinably perilous in the nature of the younger woman,
drew back in alarm.
Rising stiffly, the old lady groaned a little and, moving down the stairs,
said, “I must go, Olivia dear,” and, turning, “Miss Peavey will go with me.”
Miss Peavey would have stayed, because she was enjoying herself,
looking down on all those young people, but she had obeyed the commands
of Aunt Cassie for too long, and now she rose, complaining faintly, and
made ready to leave.
Olivia urged them to stay, and Sabine, looking at the old lady out of
green eyes that held a faint glitter of hatred, said abruptly: “I always
thought you stayed until the bitter end, Aunt Cassie.”
A sigh answered her ... a sigh filled with implications regarding Aunt
Cassie’s position as a lonely, ill, bereft, widowed creature for whom life
was finished long ago. “I am not young any longer, Sabine,” she said. “And
I feel that the old ought to give way to the young. There comes a time....”
Sabine gave an unearthly chuckle. “Ah,” she said, in her hard voice, “I
haven’t begun to give up yet. I am still good for years.”
“You’re not a child any more, Sabine,” the old lady said sharply.
“No, certainly I’m not a child any more.” And the remark silenced Aunt
Cassie, for it struck home at the memory of that wretched scene in which
she had been put to rout so skilfully.
There was a great bustle about getting the two old ladies under way, a
great search for cloaks and scarfs and impedimenta; but at last they went
off, Aunt Cassie saying over her thin, high shoulder, “Will you say good-by
to your dear father-in-law, Olivia? I suppose he’s playing bridge with Mrs.
Soames.”
“Yes,” replied Olivia from the terrace, “he’s playing bridge with Mrs.
Soames.”
Aunt Cassie merely cleared her throat, forcibly, and with a deep
significance. In her look, as in the sound of her voice, she managed to
launch a flood of disapproval upon the behavior of old John Pentland and
old Mrs. Soames.
Bidding the driver to go very slowly, she climbed into her shabby,
antiquated motor, followed respectfully by Miss Peavey, and drove off
down the long elm-bordered drive between the lines of waiting motors.
Olivia’s “dear father-in-law” was Aunt Cassie’s own brother, but she
chose always to relate him to Olivia, as if in some way it bound Olivia more
closely, more hopelessly, into the fabric of the family.
As the two younger women reentered the house, Olivia asked, “Where’s
Thérèse? I haven’t seen her for more than an hour.”
“She’s gone home.”
“Thérèse ... gone home ... from a ball given for her!”
Olivia halted in astonishment and stood leaning against the wall, looking
so charming and lovely that Sabine thought, “It’s a sin for a woman so
beautiful to have such a life.”
Aloud Sabine said, “I caught her stealing away. She walked across to the
cottage. She said she hated it and was miserable and bored and would rather
be in bed.” Sabine shrugged her handsome shoulders and added, “So I let
her go. What difference does it make?”
“None, I suppose.”
“I never force her to do things of this sort. I had too much forcing when I
was young; Thérèse is to do exactly as she likes and be independent. The
trouble is, she’s been spoilt by knowing older men and men who talk
intelligently.” She laughed and added, “I was wrong about coming back
here. I’ll never marry her off in this part of the world. The men are all afraid
of her.”
Olivia kept seeing the absurd figure of Sabine’s daughter, small and
dark, with large burning eyes and an air of sulky independence, striding off
on foot through the dust of the lane that led back to Brook Cottage. She was
so different from her own daughter, the quiet, well-mannered Sybil.
“I don’t think she’s properly impressed by Durham,” said Olivia, with a
sudden mischievous smile.
“No ... she’s bored by it.”
Olivia paused to say good-night to a little procession of guests ... the
Pingree girls dressed alike in pink tulle; the plump Miss Perkins, who had
the finest collection of samplers in New England; Rodney Phillips, whose
life was devoted to breeding springers and behaving like a perfect English
gentleman; old Mr. Tilney, whose fortune rested on the mills of Durham and
Lynn and Salem; and Bishop Smallwood, a cousin of the Pentlands and
Sabine (whom Sabine called the Apostle of the Genteel). The Bishop
complimented Olivia on the beauty of her daughter and coquetted heavily
with Sabine. Motors rushed out from among the lilacs and syringas and
bore them away one by one.
When they had gone Sabine said abruptly, “What sort of man is this
Higgins ... I mean your head stableman?”
“A good sort,” replied Olivia. “The children are very fond of him.
Why?”
“Oh ... no reason at all. I happened to think of him to-night because I
noticed him standing on the terrace just now looking in at the ball.”
“He was a jockey once ... a good one, I believe, until he got too heavy.
He’s been with us ten years. He’s good and reliable and sometimes very
funny. Old Mr. Pentland depends on him for everything.... Only he has a
way of getting into scrapes with the girls from the village. He seems
irresistible to them ... and he’s an immoral scamp.”
Sabine’s face lighted up suddenly, as if she had made a great discovery.
“I thought so,” she observed, and wandered away abruptly to continue the
business of “absorbing” the ball.
She had asked about Higgins because the man was stuck there in her
brain, set in the midst of a strange, confused impression that disturbed a
mind usually marked by precision and clarity. She did not understand why it
was that he remained the most vivid of all the kaleidoscopic procession of
the ball. He had been an outsider, a servant, looking in upon it, and yet there
he was—a man whom she had never noticed before—vivid and clear-cut,
dominating the whole evening.
It had happened a little earlier when, standing in the windowed alcove of
the old red-paneled writing-room, she had turned her back for a moment on
the ball, to look out upon the distant marshes and the sea, across meadows
where every stone and tree and hedge was thrown into a brilliant relief by
the clarity of the moonlight and the thin New England air. And trapped
suddenly by the still and breathless beauty of the meadows and marshes and
distant white dunes, lost in memories more than twenty years old, she had
found herself thinking: “It was always like this ... rather beautiful and hard
and cold and a little barren, only I never saw it before. It’s only now, when
I’ve come back after twenty years, that I see my own country exactly as it
is.”
And then, standing there quite alone, she had become aware slowly that
she was being watched by some one. There was a sudden movement among
the lilacs that stood a little way off wrapped in thick black shadows ... the
faintest stirring of the leaves that drew her sharply back to a consciousness
of where she was and why she was there; and, focusing all her attention, she
was able to make out presently a short, stocky little figure, and a white face
peering out from among the branches, watching the dancers who moved
about inside the house. The sight produced in her suddenly a sensation of
uneasiness and a faint prickling of the skin, which slipped away presently
when she recognized the odd, prematurely wrinkled face of Higgins, the
Pentland groom. She must have seen him a dozen times before, barely
noticing him, but now she saw him with a kind of illuminating clarity, in a
way which made his face and figure unforgettable.
He was clad in the eternal riding-breeches and a sleeveless cotton shirt
that exposed the short, hairy, muscular arms. Standing there he seemed,
with his arched, firmly planted legs, like some creature rooted into the soil
... like the old apple-tree which stood in the moonlight showering the last of
its white petals on the black lawn. There was something unpleasant in the
sight, as if (she thought afterwards) she had been watched without knowing
it by some animal of an uncanny intelligence.
And then abruptly he had slipped away again, shyly, among the branches
of the lilacs ... like a faun.
Olivia, looking after Sabine as she walked away, smiled at the

knowledge of where she was bound. Sabine would go into the old writing-
room and there, sitting in a corner, would pretend that she was interested in
the latest number of the Mercure de France or some fashion paper, and all
the time she would be watching, listening, while old John Pentland and
poor battered old Mrs. Soames sat playing bridge with a pair of
contemporaries. Sabine, she knew, wanted to probe the lives of the two old
people. She wasn’t content like the others at Pentlands to go on pretending
that there had never been anything between them. She wanted to get to the
root of the story, to know the truth. It was the truth, always the truth, which
fascinated Sabine.
And Olivia felt a sudden, swift, almost poignant wave of affection for
the abrupt, grim woman, an affection which it was impossible to express
because Sabine was too scornful of all sentiment and too shut in ever to
receive gracefully a demonstration; yet she fancied that Sabine knew she
was fond of her, in the same shy, silent way that old John Pentland knew
she was fond of him. It was impossible for either of them ever to speak of
such simple things as affection.
Since Sabine had come to Durham, it seemed to Olivia that life was a
little less barren and not quite so hopeless. There was in Sabine a curious
hard, solid strength which the others, save only the old man, lacked
completely. Sabine had made some discovery in life that had set her free ...
of everything but that terrible barrier of false coldness.
In the midst of these thoughts came another procession of retreating
guests, and the sadness, slipping away from Olivia’s face, gave way to a
perfect, artificial sort of gaiety. She smiled, she murmured, “Good-night,
must you go,” and, “Good-night, I’m so glad that you liked the ball.” She
was arch with silly old men and kind to the shy young ones and repeated the
same phrases over and over again monotonously. People went away saying,
“What a charming woman Olivia Pentland is!”
Yet immediately afterward she did not remember who had passed by her.
One by one the guests departed, and presently the black musicians
packed up their instruments and went away, and at last Sybil appeared, shy
and dark, looking a little pale and tired in her clinging gown of pale green.
At sight of her daughter a little thrill of pride ran through Olivia. She was
the loveliest of all the girls at the ball, not the most flamboyant, but the
gentlest and really the most beautiful. She possessed the same slow beauty
of her mother, which enveloped one in a kind of mist that lingered long
after she herself had gone away. She was neither loud and mannish and
vulgar like the “horsey” women nor common like the girls who used too
much paint and tried to behave like women of the world. There was already
about her the timelessness that envelops a lady no matter the generation in
which she appears; there was a mystery, a sophistication and knowledge of
life which put to rout all the cheap flashiness of the others. And yet,
somehow, that same cool, shy poise and beauty frightened people. Boys
who were used to calling young girls “Good old So-and-so” found
themselves helpless before the dignity of a young girl who looked in her
green gown a little like a cool wood-nymph. It troubled Olivia profoundly,
not for herself, but because she wanted the girl to be happy—more than
that, to know the depths of happiness which she herself had sensed but
never found. It was in a way as if she saw herself again in Sybil, as if
looking back now from the pinnacle of her own experience she could guide
this younger self, standing on the brink of life, along paths less barren than
those trod by her own feet. It was so necessary that Sybil should fall in love
with a man who would make her happy. With most girls it would make little
difference one way or another, so long as they had money; if they were
unhappy or bored they would divorce their husbands and try again because
that was the rule in their world. But with Sybil, marriage would be either an
immense, incalculable happiness or a profound and hopeless tragedy.
She thought suddenly of what Sabine had said of Thérèse a little while
before. “I was wrong about coming back here. I’ll never marry her off in
this part of the world.”
It was true somehow of Sybil. The girl, in some mysterious fashion,
knew what it was she wanted; and this was not a life which was safe and
assured, running smoothly in a rigid groove fixed by tradition and
circumstance. It was not marriage with a man who was like all the other
men in his world. It went deeper than all that. She wanted somehow to get
far down beneath the surface of that life all about her, deep down where
there was a savor to all she did. It was a hunger which Olivia understood
well enough.
The girl approached her mother and, slipping her arm about her waist,
stood there, looking for all the world like Olivia’s sister.
“Have you enjoyed it?” asked Olivia.
“Yes.... It’s been fun.”
Olivia smiled. “But not too much?”
“No, not too much.” Sybil laughed abruptly, as if some humorous
memory had suddenly come to life.
“Thérèse ran away,” said her mother.
“I know ... she told me she was going to.”

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Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics

For Information on all Elsevier publications

Publisher: Glyn Jones

About the authors ix

1. Overview of structural dynamics 1

2. Formulation of equations of motion of systems 13

2.11.1 The “set-in-right-position” rule for assembling system matrices 59

3. Analysis of dynamic response of SDOF systems 79

4. Analysis of dynamic response of MDOF systems:

5. Analysis of dynamic response of continuous systems:

6. Approximate evaluation of natural frequencies and

6.5.4 RayleighRitz method 241

7. Step-by-step integration method 245

Dr. Zhihui Zhou is currently an associate professor at the School of

received the awards of the Science and Technology Progress of Hunan

Dr. Chenzhi Cai received his BS degree in civil engineering and MS

Prof. Qingyuan Zeng is a distinguished scientist on bridge engineering at

Nowadays, the design of engineering structures, for example, long-span

follows: Zhihui Zhou is responsible for the writing of Chapters 1 to 4;

Overview of structural dynamics

Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

The investigation of structural dynamics focuses on understanding the

1.2 Characteristics of structural dynamics

could be treated as a static problem (a better understating of this concept

1.3 Classification of vibrations

system should be determined first. Then, the interaction among

the natural frequency associated with transverse bending of the bar,

1.4 Vibration problems in engineering

Figure 1.3 Three factors representing system vibration.

1.5 Procedures of dynamic response analysis of structures

1.5.2 Analysis of excitation

Figure 1.4 Configuration of a simply supported beam: (A) accurate description;

on a bridge include the wheelrail contact forces caused by the hunting

Prescribed dynamic loads include both periodic and nonperiodic loads.

1.5.3 Mechanism of vibration energy dissipation

1.5.4 Equation of motion of a system

where q is the generalized displacement vector; q_ is the generalized veloc-

1.5.5 Solution of equation of motion

1.5.6 Vibration tests

2.1 System constraints

Figure 2.1 Position of a particle in the basic coordinate system.

Fundamentals of Structural Dynamics © 2021 Central South University Press.

system. Bridges, buildings, and other infrastructures are considered to be

Figure 2.2 Particle constrained by a rigid rod.

Figure 2.3 Cylinder rolling horizontally.

Figure 2.4 Motion of an ice skate in a plane.

satisfy the following relationship

Figure 2.5 Motion of a planar pendulum.

Title: Early autumn

Author: Louis Bromfield

Release date: December 14, 2023 [eBook #72406]

Original publication: NYC: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1926

Credits: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY

All rights reserved

LAURA CANFIELD WOOD

Olivia, looking after Sabine as she walked away, smiled at the

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