Lecture1 –

I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Vi b r a t i o n s
M E 5 5 1 4 – M e c h a n i c a l Vi b r a t i o n s

DR . OU MAR BAR RY
2022
What is vibration?
• Vibrations:oscillations of a system about an equilbrium position.

• Frequency: rate of vibration cycles

• Amplitude: peak magnitude of cyclic motions

• Phase: relative timing of one vibration signal wrt another

• Resonance: natural frequency matches with excitation frequency which leads to

undesirable amplitude

01 / Introduction
Goal and Study Areas
• Goal of vibration engineering
• Suppress/eradicate bad vibration
• Generate desired forms and levels of good vibration

• Areas of Study
• Modeling and Analysis
• Design and Modification
• Structural Health Monitoring
• Experimentation
• Control

01 / Introduction
 What is this course about?

• We will examine vibration response in several

different levels of modelling.
• Review single degree of freedom systems
(SDOF)
• Lumped multiple degree of freedom systems
(MDOF)
• Distributed mass systems

01 / Introduction
 Applicable Engineering Field
• Civil and structural engineering: proper design of bridges, overhead transmission lines to
avoid catastrophic self-excited vibration

• Aerospace engineering: analyze and avoid excitation resonance by engine and atmospheric
excitation

• Mechanical engineering: reduced vehicle vibration for improving ride quality and comfort
and reducing maintenance and repair

• Electrical/computer engineering: proper hardware design to avoid malfunction (e.g.

components in PC and control devices

01 / Introduction
 Bad Vibration

• Bridge collapse
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zc
zJXSxnw

• Helicopter resonance
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
0FeXjhUEXlc

01 / Introduction
 Good Vibration
• Musical instrument, vehicle suspension system,
physiotherapy application, energy harvesting

01 / Introduction
What we hope to achieve in this class is:
• Understand how to analyze vibration using dynamic principles.
• Understand vibrations
• Know how to analyze vibrations
• Predict vibrations
• Using our models we hope to understand:
• Concepts of natural frequencies (eigenvalues)?
• What are Mode shapes (eigenvectors)?
• What happens when we have a Forced Response?
• The concept of Resonance
• What happens when we have multiple degrees of freedom?
01 / Introduction
 Tools you will need for this class.
• Mathematics:
• Differential equation
• Linear Algebra
• System Dynamics
• Software
• MatLab (Mathematica, etc)
• You will need to use these program in order to solve homework problems and
the project
• You will also need to attach the code to your HM
• Word / LaTex
• You will have to turn in your assignments in a printed format using word/latex.

01 / Introduction
 Mathematical Modeling

01 / Introduction
 Vibration Parameters
All mechanical systems can be modeled by three components: spring, damper, mass
 Free Vibration
• If a system, after an initial disturbance is left to vibrate on its own, the
ensuing vibration is known as free vibration.
• No external force acts on the system. The oscillation of a simple Pendulum is
an example of free vibration.
• The frequency is called natural frequency, and the form of the vibration is
called mode shapes

01 / Introduction to free vibration

 Forced Vibration
• If a system is subjected to an external force (often a
repeating type of force; e.g: earthquake, wind, engine),
the resulting vibration is known as forced vibration.
• If the frequency of the external force coincides with one of
the natural frequencies of the system, a condition known
as resonance occurs, and the system undergoes
dangerously large oscillations.
• Failures of such structures as buildings, bridges, turbines,
and airplane wings have been associated with occurrence
of resonance.

01 / Introduction
Discrete vs. Continuous system
• Discrete system: practical system described as finite
number of DOF
• Continuous system: infinite number of DOF
How many
dof???

01 / Introduction
Damped vs Undamped Vibration
• Undamped vibration: no energy is lost or dissipated in friction or other
resistance during oscillation
• Damped vibration: Loss or dissipation of energy
• All real systems dissipate energy when they vibrate. To account for this we must
consider damping. The most simple form of damping (from a mathematical point
of view) is called viscous damping. A viscous damper (or dashpot) produces a
force that is proportional to velocity

01 / Introduction
 Linear vs. Nonlinear Vibration
• Linear Vibrations: all the basic components of a vibratory system‐the spring,
the mass, and the damper, behave linearly. The differential equations are
linear. Therefore, the principle of superposition holds.
• Nonlinear vibration: one of the basic components behaves nonlinearly. The
differential equations that govern the behaviour are non‐linear. Principle of
superposition doesn’t hold.

01 / Introduction
Equation of Motion for Single DOF

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Summary of Simple Harmonic Motion

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