SECTION 1

SINGLE DEGREE OF FREEDOM

STRUCTURE DYNAMICS
 Modern structures are increasingly slender such structures are
increasingly responsive to the manner in which loading is applied with
respect to time and hence the dynamic behaviour of such structures
must be allowed for in design
 The word Dynamic simply means “changes with time”; be it force,
deflection or any other form of load effect.
 This section will introduce the basics of Dynamic Analysis by
considering a Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) problem
 Initially a free vibration model is used to describe the natural
frequency
 Damping is then introduced and the concept of critical damping
and the undamped solution is shown
 Finally a Forcing function is applied and the response of the SDOF
is explored in terms of time dependency and frequency dependency
and compared to the terms found in the equations of motion.
SINGLE DOF SYSTEM (CONT.)
Consider the System Shown

p(t)
m = mass (inertia)
c = damping (energy dissipation) u(t)
k = stiffness (restoring force)
p = applied force m
u = displacement of mass
u’ = velocity of mass
u’’= acceleration of mass k b

u, u’ ,u’’ and p are time varying in general.

m, b, and k are constants.
SINGLE DOF SYSTEM (CONT.)
k
 Theory F (t)
m
mu(t ) + cu (t ) + ku (t ) = p (t )

 a force proportional to displacement (the usual static stiffness);

 a force proportional to velocity (the damping force);
 a force proportional to acceleration (D’Alambert’s inertial force.
 In undamped, free vibration analysis, the SDOF equation of motion
reduces to:
mu(t ) + ku (t ) = 0
 Has a solution of the form:

u (t ) = A sin  nt + B cos nt
 This form defines the response as being HARMONIC, with a resonant frequency n
of:
UNDAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF SYSTEM
 For an SDOF system the resonant, or natural frequency, is given by:
k
n =
m
 Solve for the constants:
When t = 0, u = u(0),
sin( n t ) = 0 thus B = u( 0)
Differentiating solution :
u (t ) = An cos nt − Bn sin nt
When t = 0, B nsin( n t ) = 0 thus
u (0) u (0)
A= u (t ) = sin  nt + u (0) cos  nt
n n
UNDAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF SYSTEM
(CONT.)
 The response of the Spring will be harmonic, but the actual form of the
response through time will be affected by the initial conditions:

 If u (0) = 0 and u (0) = 0 there is no response

u0
 If u (0) = 0 and u (0)  0 response is a sine function magnitude n

 If u (0)  0 and u (0) = 0 response is a cosine function (180

phase change), magnitude u0
 If u (0)  0 and u (0)  0 response is phase and magnitude
dependent on the initial values
 SINGLE DOF SYSTEM – UNDAMPED FREE
VIBRATIONS
The graph is from a transient analysis of a spring mass system with Initial
velocity conditions only
k = 100
m=1 k
n = = 10 rad/s
m
f =  n / 2 = 1.59 Hz

Amp u0 = 1
T = 1/f = 0.63 secs
T
Disp.
Amp = u0 /  n = 0.1

Time
DAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF
 If viscous damping is assumed, the equation of motion
becomes:
mu(t ) + cu (t ) + ku (t ) = 0
 There are 3 types of solution to this, defined as:
 Critically Damped
 Overdamped
 Underdamped

 A swing door with a dashpot closing mechanism is a

good analogy
 If the door oscillates through the closed position it is
underdamped
 If it creeps slowly to the closed position it is overdamped.
 If it closes in the minimum possible time, with no overswing,
it is critically damped.
DAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF (CONT.)

 Generally only the final case is of interest – underdamped

When taking account of damping, we noted previously that there are

3,cases but only critical damping does an oscillatory response ensure.
using equation

and its root is

DAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF (CONT.)
 The general solution is the form:

u (t ) = e −bt / 2 m ( A sin  d t + B cos d t )

And using the initial condition we get

Using cosine addition rule we also have

In which amplitude and phase angle is

 DAMPED FREE VIBRATION SDOF (Cont.)
The graph is from a transient analysis of the previous spring mass system with
damping applied
Frequency and
period as before

Amplitude is a
function of damping

Disp.
5% Damping

2% Damping

Time
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
Apply a harmonic forcing function: p sin t
note that  is the DRIVING or INPUT frequency
The equation of motion becomes

mu(t ) + bu (t ) + ku (t ) = p sin t

The solution consists of two terms:
The initial response, due to initial conditions which decays rapidly in the presence of
damping
The steady-state response as shown:

sin(t +  )
u (t ) = p / k
(1 −  2
) 2 + (2 /  n ) 2
n
2

This equation is described on the next page

 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
This equation deserves inspection as it shows several important
dynamic characteristics:
Phase lead of the response relative to the input
(see next page)

sin(t +  )
u (t ) = p / k
(1 −  2
) 2
+ ( 2 /  ) 2

n
2 n

This is the static loading

and dominates as  tends At  >> n both terms drive the
to 0.0 response to 0.0

At  = n this term = (2  )^2 and controls

the scaling of the response
At  = n this term = 0.0
With no damping present this From this is derived the Dynamic
results in an infinite response Magnification Factor 1/2 
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)

 is defined as a phase lead in radian :

2 /  n
 = − tan −1

1−  2

n
2
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
Summary:
For ω
 1
ωn

Magnification factor 1 (static solution)

Phase angle 360º (response is in phase with the force)

For ω  1
ωn
Magnification factor 0 (no response)
Phase angle 180º (response has opposite sign of force)

For ω
1
ωn

Magnification factor 1/2

Phase angle 270º
 HARMONIC OSCILLATIONS

When the Damped system is loaded with

an exponential function of a single
frequency, the resultant oscillations are
called harmonic:
HARMONIC OSCILLATIONS (CONT.)
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
A Frequency Response Analysis can be used to explore the response of our
spring mass system to the forcing function.
This method allows us to compare the response of the spring with the input
force applied to the spring over a wide range of input frequencies
It is more convenient in this case than running multiple Transient Analyses,
each with different input frequencies
Apply the input load as 1 unit of force over a frequency range from .1 Hz to 5 Hz
Damping is 1% of Critical
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
Magnification Factor = 1/2 = 1/G = 50
Static Response = p/k = .01
Peak Response = .5 at 1.59 Hz

Note:
Use of a Log scale helps identify low
order response
Displacement

Frequency (Hz)
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
There are many important factors in setting up a Frequency Response Analysis
that will be covered in a later section

For now, note the response is as predicted by the equation of motion

At 0 Hz result is p/k
At 1.59 Hz result is p/k factored by Dynamic Magnification
At 5 Hz result is low and becoming insignificant

The Phase change is shown here:

In phase up to 1.59 Hz
Out of phase180 Degrees after 1 .59 Hz
 DAMPING WITH FORCED VIBRATION
(Cont.)
Try a Transient analysis with a unit force applied to the spring at 1.59 Hz
Again damping of 1% Critical is applied
The result is shown on the next page:
The response takes around 32 seconds to reach a steady-state solution
After this time the displacement response magnitude stays constant at .45
units
The theoretical value of .5 is not reached due to numerical inaccuracy (see
later) and the difficulty of hitting the sharp peak
 References.
MSC.Marc
Volume A
Chapter 5 – “Dynamics” section
Volume E
Chapter 6 – Dynamics
User’s guide
Chapter 3.32 ~ 3.35
MSC.Patran
MSC.Patran MSC.Marc preference guide