School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SMME)

Mechanical Vibrations ME-421

Dr. Mian Ashfaq Ali

Free Vibration with Viscous Damping

General solution for viscous damped system.

Three cases were studied:

Case 1: Underdamped:

Case 2: Critically damped

Case 3: Overdamped
Free Vibration with Viscous Damping (cont’d.)
Free Vibration with Viscous Damping (cont’d.)

The nature of the roots with

varying values of damping can be
shown in a complex plane. The
semicircle represent the locus of
the roots for different values of
damping ratio in the range of 0 to 1
Free Vibration with Viscous Damping (cont’d.)
A critically damped system will have
the smallest damping required for
aperiodic motion: hence the mass
returns to the position of rest in the
shortest possible time without
overshooting
The figure represent the phase plane or
state space of a damped system
Logarithmic Decrement

Represents the rate at which the amplitude of a free damped

vibration decreases. It is defined as the natural logarithm of the ratio
of any successive amplitude

x1 X 0 e  nt1 cos  d t1  0 


x2 X 0 e  nt 2 cos  d t 2  0 

d d
Now
t 2  t1  τ d
where, period of damped
vibration is
τ d  2 /  d
Hence ,
cos  d t 2  0   cos 2   d t1  0   cos  d t1  0 
Logarithmic Decrement (cont’d.)
Ratio for two successive decrements can now be written as:
x1 e  n t1
  n ( t1  d )  e n d
x2 e
Logarithmic decrement δ, now is given by:

For small damping , above equation will be:

  2 if   1

Damping ratio can be calculated from above equation as

Energy Dissipated in Viscous Damping

The rate of change of energy with time is given

The negative sign denotes that energy dissipate with time. Assuming a simple
harmonic motion

x t   X sin  d t

Now, energy dissipated in a complete cycle is given by

2
( 2 /  d )  dx  2
W   c  dt   cX 2 d cos 2  d t  d  d t 
t 0
 dt  0

 W  c  d X 2
Energy Dissipated in Viscous Damping (cont’d.)

The fraction of the total energy of the vibrating system that is dissipated in each cycle
of motion is called the specific damping capacity

Another quantity used to compare damping capacity of engineering materials is

called loss coefficient and is define as the ratio of energy dissipated per radian and
the total strain energy
Torsional Systems with Viscous Damping
Viscous damping torque is given by:

Equation of motion can now be written as:

As in the linear case; for the underdamped

system frequency of damped vibration is
given by

Where ωn and ζ are given by

FV Viscous Damping: Example Problems

1. Consider a spring mass system with m = 49.2 x 10-3 kg and k =

857.8 N/m, if c = 0.11 kg/s. Determine the damping ratio of the
spring mass system.
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Solution

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Natural Frequency and Equation of Motion

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