Experiment 7

Forced Damped Oscillator

Apparatus:
Pohl’s pendulum, Stop Watch, Connecting Wires.
Purpose of experiment:
(i) Determining the natural frequency of the oscillator.
(ii) To determine the damping constant of the oscillator.
(iii) To measure the amplitude of forced oscillations as function of frequency for various damping con-
stants.

Basic Methodology: If the oscillating system is stimulated to swing by an external periodic torque,
we observe that in the steady state the amplitude is a function of the frequency and the amplitude of the
external periodic torque and of the damping. The characteristic frequencies of the free oscillation as well
as the resonance curves of the forced oscillation for different damping values are to be determined.

I Theory
The general equation governing the free damped oscillator is given by

d2 x dx
+γ + ω0 x2 = 0 (1)
dt2 dt

where γ = b/m and ω02 = k/m is the characteristic frequency of the undamped oscillator with k as the
spring constant and m is the mass of the oscillator. The solution of the above equation has the following
form

x = x0 e−γt/2 (2)
p
Here x0 is the initial amplitude and the damped frequency is then given by ω = ω02 − γ 2 /4.
However, if the pendulum is acted on by a periodic force F (t) = F0 cos ωt, then we have the equation
of a Forced Damped Oscillator.

d2 x dx F0
+γ + ω0 x2 = cos ωt (3)
dt2 dt m

The solution of the above equation is x = A cos(ωt + φ);

F0 1
A= (4)
m [(ω02 − ω 2 )2 − γ 2 ω 2 ]1/2

and
 
−1 γω
A = tan 2 (5)
ω0 − ω 2
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II Procedure

Figure 1: Dual Power supply for the experimental set-up

Figure 1 shows the dual power supply used in the set-up. Left half of the unit works as constant
current power supply, which is connected to the eddy current brake system. To operate this, set the
voltage knobs (both COARSE and FINE) to some high value (nearly maximum) and set the current
to desired value (say 0.4, 0.8 A etc.) by CURRENT knob. Right half of the power supply works as
constant voltage power supply, which is connected to a DC motor which drives the oscillator. To operate
this, set the CURRENT knob to the almost maximum value and set the voltage to desired value (in this
experiment we shall fix it to 14 V) by voltage COARSE and FINE knobs. Figure 2 shows the experimental
set-up.
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Figure 2: Experimental set-up

Part A (Free oscillations)

To determine the characteristic frequency of the torsion pendulum without damping (IB = 0), the time
for several oscillations is measured repeatedly and the mean value of the period T0 is calculated. In this
case, current to the eddy current brake system and voltage to the motor both are set to zero.

Part B (Damping constant of the damped oscillator)

• Set the current 0.4 A in the eddy current brake system.

• Set oscillations by deflecting the pointer to moderate amplitude value (say 8 unit).

• Record the maximum defelection in each cycle and the corresponding time using Labview software
“FDO recording”.
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– To run the program press the arrow button .

– To zoom-in click on the image. To zoom-out click on the image with shift key pressed.
– Press “STOP RECORDING” to stop recording.

– Browse the frames through up and down arrows. Observe pointer position
to record displacement, the number displayed in the frame is elapsed time in seconds.
– Press “STOP” button to stop the labview program. Once you press this button your recorded
data in computer memory is erased.

• Plot the amplitude versus time graph and calculate γ of eq. (2) with error.

Part C (Resonant frequency calculation)

• Set the current in eddy current brake to a medium value, e. g. I = 0.4 A.
• Put the control knob in the driver to maximum, set the frequency of the exciter by adjusting the
voltage from power supply - start with a small value, e. g. n ∼0.1 Hz. (Hint: Measuring the applied
voltage to the exciter serves in this experiment as a control only. For measuring the amplitude as
function of the frequency n of the exciter it is recommended to determine the period T of the exciter
and evaluating the frequency n ∼ 1/T in turn while performing the experiment.
• Measure the period of the exciter and determine the frequency. To determine the period measure
the time 10T for 10 revolutions of the drive wheel.
• Read off the amplitude when the forced oscillation has reached a steady state and the amplitude
of successive oscillations are constant. (Note: When measuring the amplitude as function of the
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frequency of the exciter, i. e. the resonance curve, several minutes have to be waited until the
amplitude is sufficiently constant and the settling process of the forced oscillation has been completed.
This holds especially for the case of weak damping. The settling process is particularly noticeable
as a beat close to the resonance. (For this reason a medium current has to be chosen as starting
value.))

• When changing the frequency of the exciter to a new value it might be necessary to readjust
the voltage of the exciter after measuring and determining the frequency to have an appropriate
frequency value with respect to the previous frequency setting. In the region of rapid amplitude
increase the frequency has to be changed in small steps. It is recommended to stop the oscillator
completely between different exciter frequency settings and start the forced oscillation from scratch
Thus the time of the settling process is minimized.

• Compare the motions of the pointers of the exciter and the oscillator. Observe the phase relation
between exciter and oscillator qualitatively.
• Repeat the experiment for large damping (e. g. 0.8 A).

III Precaution
• The current through the eddy current brake should not exceed 2 A for a long time.
• Avoid overheating of the coils by measuring too long with large current I > 1A.

IV Exercises and Viva Questions

1. What do you mean by forced damped oscillations. Derive the steady state solutions.
2. Examine the resonance curves for die rent amounts of damping. How does increasing the damping
affect the shape of the curve (the width, maximum amplitude, frequency of the maximum)?
3. Examine the graphs of the driving oscillation versus time and the disk oscillation versus time.
Measure the phase difference between these oscillations at high frequency (at the beginning of the
time), resonance frequency (at the time when the disk oscillation is greatest), and at low frequency
(at the end of the time). Do these phase differences agree with the theory?