School of Mechanical Engineering

M.Tech. (CAD/CAM)

MEE 5017- Advanced Vibration Engineering

Problem set- Single Degree of Freedom system

Instructor: Dr.R.Vasudevan

1. A spring-mass system has a natural frequency of 10 Hz. When the spring constant is
reduced by 800 N/m, the frequency is altered by 45%. Find the mass and spring constant
of the original system.

2. The maximum velocity attained by the mass of a simple harmonic oscillator is 10 m/s,
and the period of oscillations is 2 m/s. If the mass is released with an initial displacement
of 2 cm, find a) the amplitude, b) the initial velocity c) the maximum acceleration, and d)
the phase angle.

3. Consider the transverse vibration of a bridge structure. For the fundamental frequency, it

can be considered as a single degree of freedom system. The bridge is deflected at midspan (by winching the bridge down) and suddenly released. After the initial disturbance,

the vibration was found to decay exponentially from an amplitude of 10 mm to 5.8 mm in

three cycles with a frequency of 1.62 Hz. The test was repeated with a vehicle of mass

40000 kg at mid-span and the frequency of free oscillations was measured to be 1.54 Hz.
Find the effective mass, effective stiffness and the damping ratio of the structure.

4. A bungee jumper weighing 70 kg ties one end of an elastic rope of length 60 m and
stiffness 1750 N/m. to bridge and the other end to himself and jumps from the bridge

(Figure 1). Assuming the bridge to be rigid, determine the vibratory motion of the jumper
about his static equilibrium position.

Figure 1

5. A light rigid rod of length L is pinned at one end O and has a body of mass m attached at
the other end. A spring and viscous damper connected in parallel are fastened to the rod

at a distance a from the support. The system is set up in a horizontal plane: a plan view is
shown in figure 2. Assuming that the damper is adjusted to provide critical damping,

obtain the motion of the rod as a function of time if it is rotated through a small angle 0,
and then released. Given that 0= 2 and the undamped natural frequency of the system
is 3 rad/s, calculate the displacement 1 s after release.

Explain the term logarithmic decrement as applied to such a system and calculate its
value assuming that the damping is reduced to 80% of its critical value.

Figure 2

6. An 82-kg machine tool is mounted on an elastic foundation. An experiment is run to

determine the stiffness and damping properties of the foundation. When the tool is

excited with a harmonic force of magnitude 8000 N at a variety of frequencies, the

maximum steady-state amplitude is 4.1mm at a frequency of 40 Hz. Use this information
to estimate the stiffness and damping ratio of the foundation.

7. Show that the time tp corresponding to the peak response for the impulsively excited
spring-mass-damper system is given by the equation

tan 1 2 nt p 1 2 / .

Also show that the peak displacement for the excitation is

x peak km

exp(
tan 1 1 2 / .
F
2

8. The tail rotor section of the helicopter consists of four blades(Figure 2), each of mass 2.3
kg, and an engine box of mass 28.5 kg. The center of gravity of each blade is 170 mm

from the rotational axis. The tail section is connected to the main body of the helicopter

by an elastic structure. The natural frequency of the tail section is observed as 135 rad/s.
During the flight, the rotor operates at 900 rpm. What is the vibration amplitude of the
tail section if one of the blades falls off during flight? Assume a damping ratio of 0.05.

Figure 3

9. A spring-mounted body moves with velocity u along an undulating surface, as shown in

figure 4. The body has a mass m and is connected to the wheel by a spring of stiffness k,
and a viscous damper whose damping coefficient is c. The undulating surface has a

wavelength L and an amplitude h. Derive an expression for the ratio of amplitudes of the
absolute vertical displacement of the body to the surface undulations.

Figure 4

10. The seat of a helicopter with the pilot weighs 1000 N and is found to have a static

deflection of 10 mm under self-weight. The vibration of the rotor is transmitted to the

base of the seat as harmonic motion with frequency 4 Hz and amplitude 0.2 mm. By
modeling the seat as a undamped single degree of freedom system, determine the
amplitude of vibration felt by the pilot. Also suggest how the seat can be redesigned to
reduce the effect of vibration.

11. A cylinder of mass m, radius R and mass moment of inertia J0 is free to roll without
slipping but is restrained by two springs of stiffness K1 and K2, as shown in Figure 1.

Find its natural frequency of vibration. Also, find the value of a that maximizes the
natural frequency of vibration.

Figure 5