1

COURSENOTES.docx
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS THE RELEVANT THEORY NEEDED.

2. RESPONSE OF LINEAR SDOF SYSTEMS TO GENERAL LOADING (8 PAGES)

In practice the SDOF analytical methods can be used for MDOF systems. Consider the SDOF model:

my cy ky p0 t
by division through by the mass in this can be written

y 2 n y n 2 y f t

where

c
is the damping factor (considered light if << 1), and
2 km

k
is the (undamped) natural frequency
m

f t

p0 ( t )

2.1 ANALYSIS IN THE TIME DOMAIN - DUHAMEL INTEGRAL FOR SDOF LINEAR SYSTEM
Given (a system which can be considered as having unit mass):

y 2 n y n 2 y f t

(2.1)

What is the response y(t) for arbitrary f(t) when the initial conditions are y 0 yo and y 0 y o . Now in
general the solution to (1) is of the form :
yt y cf t y PI t
yt Ae

1t

Be

2t

y PI t

(2.2)

where A & B are constants of integration and where the exponents 1 and 2 are the unique roots of the
characteristic equation :

S 2 2 n S n 2 0

(2.3)

1 and 2 are usually complex conjugates which give then rise to sinusoidal terms (otherwise exponential
terms) in the complementary solution. (See Maths/Vibrations/Modelling-Simulation notes). Now from our
knowledge of the free motion of the system we can construct the total solution in terms of a free-decay
response and an impulse response function.
i)

Free-decay response from (unit) amplitude i.e. f t 0 ; y PI 0 .

If y 0 1 and y 0 0 then ycf can be obtained by finding the constants of integration A and B as
follows :
A B 1

since e

10

i. e. at t 0

1 A 2 B 0

This gives :

2
1
A
, B

1 2
1 2

y t (unit amplitude free decay)

ii)

- e 1t e 2 t
2
1
y( t )
=
UAFD

1
2

Free response from (unit) initial velocity

f t 0; y

PI

(2.4)

If y 0 0 and y 0 1 then ycf can be similarly obtained i.e.

A B 0
1 A 2 B 1

sketch here

This gives :
A

1
-1
, B
1 2
1 2
e1t e2t
yt ( unit velocity free decay)
y( t )UVFD
1 2

(2.5)

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where suffices UAFD and UVFD are used here to describe UNIT amplitude and UNIT velocity FREE decay
solutions. Now these are UNIT amplitude and UNIT velocity responses i.e responses to appropriate unit
initial conditions but since equation (1) is linear it obeys superposition principles: i.e
if y1 results from x1 , and y2 results from x2 , then y1 y2 results from x1 x2 ). So the complementary
function solution can be obtained for arbitrary

y 0, y 0 by scaling result i) by y 0 and result ii) by y 0

ycf y0 yt UAFD y 0 y(t )UVFD

i.e.

The Impulse Response Function

Suppose the system was completely at rest at t = 0 and we choose a unit impulse of duration
t i.e. f t 1t for this short period and zero thereafter such the area is:
area f t dt

1
t 1
t

f(t)

t
t

Figure 2.1
Now we know that the product momentum mv=0 for t < 0 , and mv = 1 for t > t (since m = 1 and this
is a unit impulse) - therefore after time t the velocity v = 1.
Now if we make t arbitrarily short, then the response of the system we call this solution the unit impulse
response function h(t). But before giving specific details note that this is identical to the case
y 0 0 and y 0 1 . So in general h t yUVFD t . Now for the case when damping is subcritical then the
roots of the characteristic equation are complex and the impulse response (or yUVFD t ) becomes:
ht yUVFD t

nt

sin d t

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where d n 1 2

(is the damped natural frequency).

(Note the system here has unit mass - the response for any mass m simply involves division by m.)

e
h t

i.e. :

nt

m d

sin d t is the response of my cy ky p t to unit impulse p t .

Now h(t) has a special role to play for an arbitrary excitation process f(t) which can be established using
superposition.
Consider the response of equation (1) to a unit impulse at time of magnitude

1
assuming the system is
t

at rest prior to the impulse.

The response of the system :

y t 0

y t h t

Now consider response to an impulse of magnitude 1 not 1t the response would then be

y t 0

y t h t t

and the response to an impulse of magnitude f() would be

y t 0

y t h t f t

Now if we consider the response to a series of impulses arranged at different times

1, 2 ,...., n each of magnitude f i the total response would be using superposition:

yt 0

t 1

yt ht i f i
i 1

sketch here

so in the limit as t o and n

yt

lim
n

ht f ht f d
i

i 1

where lower limit is used arbitrarily to allow the first impulse to start at t , but it could start
anywhere.
This solution assumes that the system was initially (at t ) at rest and that f(t) starts at t . If
however f(t) starts at t = 0 and the system is at rest at t = 0 then :
t

yt ht f d
o

but if at t = 0 the system is not at rest but has initial conditions yt yo , y 0 y o then the full solution is
t

y t y o yUAFD t y o h t h t f d

(2.6)

Now this is known as the time domain general solution and the integral term involving convolution of the
impulse response function and the excitation function f(t) is called the Duhamel Integral - it can rarely be
evaluated other than numerically - which may be much faster than integrating the equation numerically in a
step-by-step approach (e.g. Runge-Kutta - i.e using SIMULINK).
Note for the sub-critically damped linear SDOF system with zero initial conditions the general response is:

yt ht f d
o

sin d t f d

Relationship between Impulse Response Function and Frequency Response Function

The I.R.F. and F.R.F. are Fourier Transform Pairs i.e.

(2.7)

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H j

ht e

jt

dt

ht

1
2

H j e

jt

so the Frequency Response Function is the Fourier Transform of the impulse response function .
So if system is :

my cy ky p t
The impulse response function is:
ht

1
e nt sin d t 0 1
m d

(2.9)

and the frequency response function is:

1
1
H j

k 2

1 j 2
n
n

0 ;

H j

y j

p j

(2.10)

(Note we can also obtain H(j) by taking the Laplace Transform p t e st dt and replacing s by j.)
o

If the initial time is t = 0 and the system is not at rest then we have to add in the complementary solutions to
the response y(t) in the time domain.

5.1

EIGENVALUES AND EIGENVECTORS OF CONSERVATIVE SYSTEMS

To obtain the solution of a general undamped linear system we assume that the solution is a harmonic
function, and by using the complex form, the phase shift between input and output can be easily accounted
for :
i.e.

assume :

z t zeiwt
substitution into (5.1) gives :

w mz k ze
2

then

iwt

but since

iwt

w 2 mz k z 0

Now if we premultiply by m1 ( if it exists) then we obtain

w2 z m

k z 0

or

E w2 I z 0

(5.2)(a)

where E m1 k is known as the stiffness form of dynamic matrix. (Note sometimes D k 1 m is

used and just called the dynamic matrix leading to the eigenproblem:

D I z
1
w2

(5.2)(b)

Equation (5.2) is a standard eigenvalue problem in which eigenvalues of w2 of the matrix E need to be
found. Corresponding vectors z which satisfy (5.2) at each of the eigenvalues also need to be found. The
eigenvalues and eigenvectors are interpreted as Natural frequencies and mode shapes of vibration
respectively for free undamped vibration. These eigenvectors are called normal modes.
Now the solution process to obtain the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of (5.2) is only possible if :

E w2 I 0
i.e.

(5.3)

a determinental equation, which leads to the frequency equation (a polynomial in w2 ) the roots of

which are the eigenvalues.

w12 , w22 ,......., wN2

there should be N roots.

Now w1 is called the first mode (or fundamental frequency)

eigenvalue we substitute back into (5.2) i.e.

E w Iz 0
2
i

w2 the 2nd mode and so on. If for each

(5.4)

then from this equation, we can solve for an eigenvector which is a relative measure of how, when vibrating
in the ith mode with frequency wi , the displacements are related. So the eigenvector z only tells us the
shape of the free vibration - the amplitude can by anything. Usually the amplitude of the first element of the
displacement vector z is set = 1, or the magnitude of the entire vector z may be normalised as we shall
mention shortly.

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Example : 3 DOF system (see p 125 Newland ) (via simple hand calculation):
If

mz cz k z 0

with mass and stiffness matrices:

m o o
m o m o
o o
m

2 k
k k
o

k
2k
k

k
2k

c o

where m = 1.0 kg , k = 1.0 N/m for this is actually a lumped mass model.
Now in this example:

m k -1
0

-1
2
-1

-1 E
2

and if we solve :

E w2 I 0
leads to a cubic equation in w2 which is solved to find roots to obtain:

w12 0.5858

w1 0 / 7654 rad / sec

w22 2.000

w2 14142
.
rad / sec

w32

34142
.

w3 18478
.
rad / sec

and for each wi we can obtain from (5.4) by setting z1 1 the following eigenvectors

z 1

.
10

2
10

i.e.

w
1

z 2

10
.

0.0
10
.

i.e.

w
2

.
10

z 3 2
1

i.e.

w
3

So the 1st element is arbitrarily normalised to 1. What these eigenvectors show, are relative amplitudes if
the structure were vibrating only at that corresponding natural frequency.
End of example
Normalisation of eigenvectors
It is often convenient to rescale the eigenvectors to several possible lengths - sometimes this might be (as in
FE code) to make the largest amplitude 1. Another procedure is to make the length of the eigenvector have
magnitude 1. i.e. scale as follows:

z 1

z 2

z 1

z 3

z 2

i.e.

z 3

U 1 , U 2 , U 3 ,.......

So for the example earlier these eigenvectors scale to

U 1

U 2

U3

z 1

z 3

0 12
2

12 2 12

10
10
.
. 1.0 2

1

0 2 0 0
-1.0
-1.0 1.0 2

z 2

z 3

12 2 12

z 1

z 2

.
. 1.0 2
10
10
1 1
2 2 2 2
10

10
1
.
. 2

.
. 1.0 2
10
10

1
1.0
2
2 2 2
1
1 12

The Modal Matrix

It is also common to arrange the normalised eigenvectors into a special matrix as follows, for example using
the above:
12

U 1 2
12

-1/0
2
1

2
1

0
-1
2

This is an example of

a Modal Matrix

Note : The Modal Matrix in general for N x N system can be written in the form :

U U 1 , U 2 ,........., U N
This is an important matrix which allows a system of equations, under certain conditions, to be
diagonalised. In fact under appropriate conditions we have shown that:

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M 11

K11

M 22

T
U m U

K 22

T
U k U

(5.11)

where U is the modal matrix

i.e.

U z 1 , z 2 , z 3 ,.....

and where [M] and [K] are diagonal matrices. (Sometimes the matrix

is further normalised so that the

generalised mass is arranged such that U m U I but it isnt necessary).

T

6.

SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO LINEAR M.D.O.F. SYSTEMS

In general, a forced linear MDOF system vibrates in all its modes. We are now in a position to consider
obtaining the displacements of the discrete system:

mz cz k z p t
when both c and p t are non-zero, for systems which have symmetric mass matrix [m] and stiffness
matrix [k], which are both real, and at least one of which is positive definite.
6.1

THE ROLE OF NORMAL COORDINATES

When c 0 and P t 0 (i.e. an equation m

z k z 0 ) we have seen that the normal modes
possess certain orthogonality properties which can serve the same purpose as base functions . U i is the
mode shape (eigenvector) for mode i, which can be used to transform the displacement vector as follows:

z U1Y1 U 2Y2 U 3Y3 U1 , U 2 , U 3 ]Y [U]Y

where U is the modal matrix of eigenvectors, and Y is a generalised coordinate vector. So the modal
matrix U serves to transform the vector Y to the actual (physical) coordinates z t , and Y is therefore
referred to as normal coordinates vector. Since U is full and non singular then U can be inverted, so it
is always possible to obtain Y from z t
not involve the problem of finding an inverse
is orthogonal to [m] and [k] i.e.

i.e.

Y U 1 z and vice versa. However this operation need

U1 since, as we have seen in Section [5] the modal matrix

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U m U M

T
U k U K

&

z UY

So if

(6.1)

Pre-multiply by U m gives
t

U T mz U T m U Y

U mz M Y

1
U T mz
Y
m

and similarly for the derivatives :

1
U T mz
Y
m

1
U T m
z
m

diagonal

(6.2)

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where M is the diagonal generalised mass matrix,

so
M M

UNCOUPLING EQUATIONS OF MOTION : ZERO DAMPING

mz k z 0

The real advantage of using normal coordinates is that direct substitution (of 6.1) into the system equations
have the beneficial effect of uncoupling the equations. So given :

mz k z
set

(6.3)

z UY

then we obtain

m UY k UY 0
T
Now pre multiply by U we get

UT m[U]Y UT k UY 0

T
k Y U p t
m
Y+

Each of the uncoupled equations can be solved independently : example showing uncoupled 2 DOF system :

M11
0

i.e.

0 Y1 K11

M 22 Y2 0

0 Y1 U11 P1 t U 21 P2 t

K 22 Y2 U12 P1 t U 22 P2 t

M11Y1 K11Y1 U11 P1 t U 21 P2 t

(6.5)

M 22Y2 K 22Y2 U12 P1 t U 22 P2 t

(6.6)

so now we can solve for Y1 and Y2 using sdof methods, then use superposition equation (6.1) to obtain
z t
i.e.

z t UY U1Y1 U 2Y2 t

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UNCOUPLING EQUATIONS WITH DAMPING
Consider the system :

mz cz k z p t
Now suppose that the damping matrix is proportional to the mass matrix, or stiffness matrix, or in general a
linear combination of the two i.e. :

c m k
(where and are constants)
then substitute this into the system equation :

mz m k z k z pt
Now we use the modal matrix U via m
z k z 0 to do a normal coordinate transformation i.e.
z Y i.e. set

z U Y
z U Y

where

&
z U Y
z above gives :
Now substitute z, z and

mUY m k UY k UY Pt
Now pre-multiply through by U

i.e.

UT m UY UT m U U T k UY UT k UY UT P t
but we know that the (normal) modal matrix is orthogonal with respect to [m] and [k] i.e.

T
U m U M and U k U K both diagonal matrices

the equation now reduces to a system of uncoupled SDOF equations i.e.
T

14

T
K Y U pt
M Y M K Y

i.e.

T
M ii Yi M ii K ii Yi K ii Yi U Pt

i 1,.... N
or following division by M ii gives

U Pt

K
K
Yi ii Yi ii Yi
M ii
M ii
M ii

K ii
wn2i
M ii

so if we let
we have :

U
Y 2 w Y w Y

ni

2
ni

Pt

M ii

where wni is the undamped modal natural frequency of the ith mode (i.e. the ith eigenvalue)
and i is the ith modal damping factor where

wn2

w
i
i

ni

2
2wni 2wni
so equation (6.4) can be solved using the techniques discussed in the 1st three lectures as separate single
D.O.F. equations to obtain Y1 t , Y2 t ,......., YN t Y T and then the displacement of the entire structure
can be obtained from :
z t UY
which now superposes the solution of the individual modes.