Sheikh Shahir

One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

NAME
: Sheikh Shahir Muhaamad Afiful Islam
MATRIC NO : KEM120702
TITLE
: ONE DEGREE OF FREEDOM

1.0 OBJECTIVE

The experiment consisted of three different objectives:

1. Using the information provided on the stiffness and mass, we are required to find out the undamped
natural frequency of the single degree of freedom system.
2. From the transient response of the system, we are required to found the natural frequency of the
damped system, the undamped natural frequency and also the damping ratio.
3. To finish it off, comparison will be made from the results obtained from the above objectives.
2.0 ABSTRACT
The following experiment was carried out to determine the undamped natural frequency, o , of a one
degree of freedom system by making use of the values of stiffness and mass. Having done that, we also
went to determine the damping ratio, which is and the damped natural frequency, d and undamped
natural frequency, o, from the transient response of the system. The instruments used in this experiment
are a cantilever beam. A cantilever beam is a prime example of a single degree of freedom system. Along
with that we also have a Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) tool conducted to our laptop.
Our experiment consists of two parts. In the first part of our experiment we apply a force to the cantilever
beam and record the displacement of the beam. This is done slowly in steps with the application of a load.
By plotting a graph of the load applied versus the change in displacement, we determine the spring
constant or stiffness constant, k, of the cantilever beam. In the second part of the experiment we ensure
that a steady load of a constant value is applied to beam. As the beam is displaced, we are able to acquire
the transient response. After that, its possible to plot a graph of ln Y versus time using the data that we
obtained.
3.0 INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
3.1 INTRODUCTION
First we look into the definition of vibration.
Vibration (also known as Oscillation) is said to be any kind of motion that repeats after a certain interval
of time. Examples of Vibration include the swinging of a Pendulum or the motion of a plucked string.
The theory of vibration deals with the study of oscillatory motions of bodies and the forces associated
with them.

Vibration can be catergorized into the following types types:

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Free vibration- A system is said to be vibrating freely when an initial force or disturbance is applied to
the system and then its left to vibrate freely on its own. An example would be to flick a fixed spring
sideways and watching it oscillate a few times to the left and right before coming to a stop. In this case,
the spring, which is the mechanical system in question, vibrates at one or more of its natural frequency
before its damped enough to come to a stop.
Forced vibration
Forced vibration is extremely different from free vibration. In forced vibration, the mechanical system is
subjected a changing force or motion. An example of forced vibration would be a toy that requires an
objected supported by elastic band. One such toy could be a paddle ball that is suspended from a finger.
When a child moves the paddle by making use of his her finger, he/she is driving the paddle ball at a
certain frequency. The child is applying an external force to vibrate the ball up and downIn a vibratory
system, there is a means for storing potential energy, a means for storing kinetic energy and a means by
which energy is gradually lost. In vibrational motion, there is said to be conservation of energy. For
instance, when we are extending a spring by a certain length, the spring is said to have stored some
potential energy. When we let go off the spring, the spring returns to its initial state. When the spring has
reached its un-stretched state all of its potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy. When the
spring oscillates, energy is transferred to and fro the two different formskinetic and potential energy.
A mass is supposed to oscillate for an infinite number of time in such a system, however in reality the
existence of damping will damping will result in the loss of energy and the system will eventually come
to rest.
Degree of Freedom:
The degree of freedom of a system can be defined as the minimum number of coordinates required to
completely determine the positions of all parts of a system at any instant of time .The spring mass system
shown below is a prime example of a single degree of freedom system. The positions of all parts of the
system at any given time can be determined by a single co-ordinate, which is x. In case of the pendulum,
the motion of the simple pendulum can be stated in terms of the angle, theta, or in terms of the Cartesian
co-ordinates x and y. If the co-ordinates x and y are used to describe the motion, it must be recognized
that these co-ordinates are not independent. They are related to each other through the relation X2 + Y2 =
L2. A system can be supposedly have from one to infinite degrees of freedom.

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

Figure 1- Single Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) systems

Linear Variable Differential Transformer:

This is a tool used for the sake of measuring linear displacement. It consists primarily of an electrical
transformer. The linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) (also called just a differential
transformer) is a type of electrical transformer used for measuring linear displacement (position).
According to Wikipedia, linear variable differential transformer (LVDT in short) serves as a means to
measure continuous displacement. The LVDT consists of three solenoidal coils that are placed around a
tube in an end-to-end pattern. It has a centre coil which is the primary coil and there are two external coils
at the top and bottom which are considered to be secondary. The object whose position is to be measured
is attached to a cylindrical ferromagnetic core which slides along the axis of the tube. The system relies
on alternating current to derive the primary coil resulting in the induction of a voltage in the secondary
coils. The frequency of typical LVDTs range from 1 to 10KHz.

Figure 2 :Simple form of linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

Figure 3: Various types of linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)

LVDTs have a variety of applications and are commonly used for position feedback in servomechanism,
and for automated measurement in machine tools and many other industrial and scientific applications.

3.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

For an unforced damped SDOF system, the general equation of motion becomes,
with the initial conditions,

This equation of motion is a second order, homogeneous, ordinary differential equation (ODE). If all
parameters (mass, spring stiffness, and viscous damping) are constants, the ODE becomes a linear ODE
with constant coefficients and can be solved by the Characteristic Equation method. The characteristic
equation for this problem is,
Using our knowledge of differentials, it can be seen that the equation of motion in that we have in our
hand is a homogenous, second order and ordinary differential equation. If we have constants for all the
different parameters such as stiffness, viscous damping and mass, this equation becomes a linear ODE
with constant coefficients. Henceforth we can use solve this using the Characteristic Equation.
Which determines the 2 independent roots for the damped vibration problem. The roots to the
characteristic equation fall into one of the following 3 cases:
1.

If
< 0, the system can be said to be underdamped. The roots are found to be
complex conjugates which corresponds to oscillatory motion with an exponential

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

decay in amplitude.
2.

3.

If
= 0, it is said the system is critically damped., corresponding to simple
decaying motionwith at most one overshoot of the system's resting position.
If
> 0, the system is termed overdamped. Solving the characteristic question
gives repeated roots and the roots of the characteristic equation are purely real and
distinct, corresponding to simpleexponentially decaying motion.

To simplify the solutions coming up, we define the critical damping cc, the damping ratio , and the
damped vibration frequency d as,

Where n which is the natural frequecny is given by,

Note that d will equal n when the damping of the system is zero (undamped system).
Below are further explanation of underdamped system which is one of the most common type of system
among the three types of system.
Underdamped Systems
When
< 0 (equivalent to
< 1 or
<
), the characteristic equation has a pair of
complex conjugate roots. The displacement solution for this kind of system is,

An alternate but equivalent solution is given by,

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

The displacement plot of an underdamped system would appear as,

Figure 4: The displacement plot of an underdamped system

Note that the displacement amplitude decays exponentially (i.e. the natural logarithm of the amplitude
ratio for any two displacements separated in time by a constant ratio is a constant; long-winded!),

where

is the period of the damped vibration.

From theory it is known that the most basic vibration system is a one degree of freedom vibration system.
A simple example of this system would be a system consisting of a rigid mass body connected to a spring.

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KEM120702

The mass can only move along the length of the spring therefore its motion is restricted to one direction
only thereby giving it a single degree of freedom.

Figure 5: The equivalent model of the cantilever system used in the experiment

Making use of Newtons second law of motion which states that force is equal to mass times acceleration
we can visualize vibration as according to the following diagram:

Figure 6: Free body diagram of SDOF

Treating the cantilever beam according to above diagram, we can simulate an equation for its motion:

In our experiment no external forces act on the cantilever beam. Therefore f(t) is zero and we substitute
that the differentials for acceleration and velocity in the equation to get:

d 2x
dx
c kx 0
2
dt
dt

We assume that theres no damping, and therefore the value of c is zero. The figue below shows an
undamped system.

Figure 7: Undamped system

Sheikh Shahir

One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

Natural frequency is the frequency or frequencies at which an object tends to vibrate with amplitudes of
the vibrations when hit, struck, plucked, strummed or somehow disturbed. Each types degree of freedom
has their distinct natural frequency expressed by o. It also can be undamped or damped and this depends
on whether the system has significant damping. The equation of undamped natural frequency is as below:

k
m

For damped natural frequency, d, in mathematical equation, it is equal to product of undamped natural
frequency with square root of one minus the square of damping ratio.

d o 1 2

1/ 2

Damping ratio, , shows how the oscillations in a system decay after a disturbance. It is a dimensionless
measure. This can be expressed by mathematical formula where the level of damping in a system relative
to critical damping.

c
ccr

Damping can be classified into underdamped, overdamped and critical damping. In this experiment, we
only consider the critical damping. It only occurs when the damping ration is one (=1) where the system
will fail to overshoot and will not make a complete single oscillation. In critical damping system, it does
not oscillate and returns to its equilibrium position without any oscillating. It can be expressed as:

ccr 2 km
is the decay rate (rad/s). It is the measure of how fast the amplitude of oscillation decay to zero with
the change of time. The equations of decay rate are expressed as:

1/ 2

1 2

Sheikh Shahir

One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

The time taken for one complete vibration with returns to its original position and velocity for the
oscillator is the period of vibration, T. For this experiment, TD is the time taken to complete the
oscillation.

TD

Figure 8-Graphical representation of displacement against time

The amplitudes x are defined as:

x = Ae-t
loge x = loge A + loge e-t
logex = loge A t
Figure 9: Graph of loge x versus t

Sheikh Shahir

One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

We can determine from the gradient of the graph, hence can be calculated.
4.0 RESULT
4.1 Part I: Stiffness and Mass
Table 1: Load and Displacement
Force (N)

Displacement, x (mm)

Displacement, x
(mm)

Displacement, x
(mm)

(ii)

(iii)

(i)

Mean
(mm)

0.01

0.01

0.01

0.01

0.15

0.16

0.16

0.156

0.30

0.29

0.29

0.293

0.46

0.46

0.45

0.456

0.61

0.61

0.61

0.61

10

0.77

0.77

0.76

0.76

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0.1
0
-0.1 0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Force (N)

-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6

y = -0.7812x + 0.0223

-0.7
-0.8
-0.9

Distance (mm)

Graph 1: Force, F (N) against Displacement, x (mm)

We obtain, stiffness, k, from the graphs equation. However we make sure to calculate the effective mass
and undamped natural frequency, o
Based on the graph 1, the equation of the graph is:
13.263x - 0.0511

Stiffness, k = gradient of the Graph of Force versus Displacement

= 13.263 N/mm
= 13263 N/m
Effective Mass, m
= 0.4077 kg
Undamped Natural Frequency, 0,1

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

= 180.36 rad/s
= 28.705 Hz
4.2 Part II: Transient Response
Table 2: Transient Response Data

Displacement, Y (mm)

ln Y

TD (s)

Time (s)

0.9434

-0.05826

0.000

0.000

0.7878

-0.2385

0.065

0.5580

0.6986

--0.3586

0.065

0.6230

0.6113

-0.4922

0.065

0.6880

0.5355

-0.6245

0.065

0.7550

0.4563

-0.7846

0.065

0.8200

0.3859

-0.9521

0.065

0.8830

0.3759

-0.978

0.065

0.9480

0.3126

-1.163

0.065

1.0130

0.3044

-1.1894

0.065

1.5900

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KEM120702

0.5

0
0

0.5

1.5

Ln Y

-0.5
Y-Values
Linear (Y-Values)

-1

-1.5
y = -1.2333x + 0.2218
-2

Time (s)

Graph 2: lnY against Time

For the calculation part, it is based on the graph 2 above

1. Decay Rate,
From the graph of ln Y versus time (s), the equation of the graph is:
Y = -1.233x - 0.2218
Therefore, the gradient of the graph is -0.8253 s-1.
Decay Rate,
= - (gradient of the Graph of ln Y versus Time)

= 1.233 s-1
2. Damped Natural Frequency, d
Period, TD
= 0.065 s

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

= 96.66 rad/s
3. Damping Ratio,

=
4. Undamped Natural Frequency, o

0,2 = 96.67
= 15.38Hz
5. Damping Coefficient, c
Critical damping, ccr
=
=
= 147.06 Ns/m
c
= ccr
=(
x 10-3)(147.06 Ns/m)
= 1.0892 Ns/m
5.0 DISCUSSION
From the calculations done based on the data obtained from part I and part II, we found that the
undammed natural frequency in part I is 180.36 rad/s; and for part II, it is 96.67rad/s. By using the
equation shown below, it was found that percentage of error which is 46.396%. The percentage difference
is of a considerable amount therefore there are two different possibilities. Either the experiment was done
incorrectly or the data obtained was incorrect resulting in the great deviations.
Percentage of Difference

= o.1 o.2 100

o.1

180.36 96.68
100 = 46.396 %
180.36

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

Also the graphs obtained are skewed in many different ways even though we are supposed to obtain a
straight lines. In the first graph we can see a fluctuation pattern that almost represents an exponential
graph. and almost similar to an exponential graph in the 2nd part of the experiment. There can be some
possible errors in the experiment and we can address them below.

To start off, we completely ignored the mass of the cantilever beam in the equations.. But the
mass of the cantilever beam cannot be fully neglected as it has substantial mass compared to the
mass of the hangar. We can solve this issue by including the mass of the cantilever beam in the
equation. However, if we want to make use of the current formula we have to use a much larger
beam mass so that we can completely ignore the mass of the cantilever beam.

We might have some issues with our LVDT probe. In case it wasnt pressed completely, the
displacement readings would not be up to the mark. We must ensure that the LVDT undergoes the
highest possible compression so that its set to zero and gives significant displacement when
weights are placed on the hanging mass. But practically its impossible to give an LVDT
maximum compression as our sensitivity is quite low compared to that of the probe. Therefore
when we operate the probe and release it after compression it might deviate slightly.

We assume the damping to be constant at all times however in reality, it varies all the time. Its not
practically possible to halt a moving system completely just by having damping.
. In this experiment without having external damping device, the damping of cantilever beam is
probably because of dissipation of energy due to the strain applied to it via the uploading of the
hangar. Other external force such as wind and accidental touches from the observers might have
indirectlycause some small changes in damping constant of the system.

The first part of our experiment was done in a static system whereas the second part of our
experiment can be considered to be dynamic. So we can safely assume that the second part of our
experiment is more accurate as in reality all systems are dynamic. The atoms or molecules of a
substance will be vibrating all the time as it subjected to unseen external forces such as air from
surrounding, thus it is hard to imagine that a system can be set at static unless it is in vacuum.Due
to this factor, there will be percentage of difference between data from the two parts of the
experiment.
We can assume the weight and the hanger to be completely rigid as rigid bodies are absolutely
unmovable. But as soon as we put the hangar on the beam we ad an external force to the entire
system. Also the beam can be said to be undergoing internal vibration which we cannot see with
the naked eyes. We also have to take into consideration the oscillation and vibrations to other parts
of equipment and this will dissipate energy to surroundings which caused energy loss and causing
the damping to occur faster due to the energy loss.

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One Degree OF Freedom

KEM120702

6.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion for the vibrating cantilever system, the undamped natural frequency is 180.36 rad/s as
obtained from mass and stiffness information in the first part of the experiment whereas for the 2nd part
the undamped natural frequency is 96.67 rad/s as obtained from transient response analysis. They have
percentage difference of 46.936%.Tthe damping ratio, obtained for this experiment would be
. Lastly the damped natural frequency d for this experiment is 96.66 rad/s.
7.0 REFERENCES

1. Rao, S.S. (1986), Mechanical Vibrations, Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.

2. Laboratory worksheet
3. Degree of freedom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_freedom_(mechanics)
4. Vibration ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration
5. Linear Variable Differential Transformer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_variable_differential_transformer