Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras

ME 7360 Theory of Vibration

Assignment 1
Due on: September 6, 2017

1. Determine the differential equation of motion for the systems shown in Figure 1
from free body diagrams.

Figure 1:

2. A machine weighing 400 kg is mounted on a cantilevered beam which touches a

simply supported beam as shown in Figure 2. The length of the both beams is 1m,
width is .1m,thickness is 0.02m and E=210x109 Pa. Neglecting the mass of beam,

(a) Determine equivalent spring constant and equivalent damping coefficient for
the system which is assumed to have 10 % of the critical damping.
(b) Find the vibration response due to an initial displacement of 1 cm and plot
the time history.

Figure 2:

1
3. Find the governing differential equations of motion for the printing machine shown
in Figure 3 using appropriate free body diagrams. Please note that J6 represents the
effective moment of inertia of the inter-meshing gears referred to angle ϕ6 , J4 the
effective mass moment of inertia of the first gear pair referred to angle ϕ4 , J1 , J2 ,
and J3 the inertias of the printer cylinders and J5 the moment of inertia of the
motor armature and flywheel.

Figure 3: Printing machine

4. A portion of an automobile suspension system consists of an elastic spring and a

viscous damper, as shown in Figure 4, such that k/m = 40 sec−2 .

(a) Determine the allowable range (minimum limit) of the ratio c/m so that any
oscillations that occur will decay by a factor of 90% within 1 cycle.
(b) If the system is initially at rest imparting an initial vertical velocity of 0.6
m/sec, determine the maximum vertical displacement of the system if c/m =
20 sec−1 .
(c) With same initial conditions, find the response assuming the system is critically
damped.
(d) Plot the system reponses for all the 3 cases on a single graph and comment.

Figure 4: Suspension system

2
5. A torsional system consists of a disc of mass moment of inertia = 20 kg-m2, a
torsional damper of damping constant ct = 400 N-m-s/rad, and a steel shaft of
diameter 5 cm and length 1 m (fixed at one end and attached to the disc at the other
end). A steady angular oscillation of amplitude 2◦ is observed when a harmonic
torque of magnitude 1000 N-m is applied to the disc. Find

(a) The frequency of the applied torque.

(b) Maximum torque transmitted to the support.