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Chapter 2
Analysis for dynamic loading
George D.Monolis

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is analysis of structures that are subjected to time varying loads.
Despite the fact that the majority of civil engineering structures are built on the assumption
that all applied loads are static, there are exceptions which require a distinction between static
and dynamic loads to be made, as in earthquake engineering. All loads in nature are time
dependent. In many cases, however, loads will be applied to a structure in slowly varying
ways, which implies that static conditions can be assumed. The term slow here is quantified
through comparison with an intrinsic time of the structure, which is none other than its natural
period. Thus, a load varies slowly or is fast only in relation to the time required for the
structure to complete a full cycle of oscillation.
There is growing interest nowadays in the process of designing civil engineering structures
to withstand dynamic loads (Biggs, 1965; Craig, 1981; Bathe, 1982). As examples, we
mention (i) structures which house moving or vibrating equipment, (ii) bridges under traffic,
(iii) multistory structures subject to wind and (iv) the case of earthquake induced loads
(Clough and Penzien, 1993; Newmark and Rosenblueth, 1971). Essentially, dynamic analyses
focus on evaluation of time dependent displacements, from which the stress state of the
structure in question can be computed (Paz, 1997; Argyris and Mlejnek, 1991; Chopra, 1995).
The most basic pieces of information needed for this are the natural period, which is a
function of the structure’s mass and stiffness, and the amount of available damping (or,
equivalently, the amount of energy that can be absorbed by the structure).

2.2 THE SINGLE DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM OSCILLATOR

The simplest dynamic model is the Single Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) oscillator shown in
Figure 2.1 (a). It is an exact model for the simple orthogonal frame with slender columns and
a strong inflexible girder, where all the mass can be lumped. Three basic types of vibrations
can be considered, namely horizontal, vertical and
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Figure 2.1 (a) SDOF modelling of a single story frame for (b) horizontal, (c) vertical and (d) rotational
oscillations.

Figure 2.2 Various types of dynamic loads: harmonic, aperiodic, earthquake and long duration.

rotational, as shown in Figure 2.1(b)-(d). As expected, the SDOF oscillator is used extensively
for modelling structural systems, but it should be remembered that it is an approximate model
for anything else but the simple frame previously mentioned. Next, some typical dynamic
loads are shown in Figure 2.2, where we distinguish between periodic (both harmonic and
non-harmonic) and aperiodic (both short and long duration) loads.
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Figure 2.3 SDOF oscillator.

With reference to Figure 2.3, the equation of motion of the SDOF oscillator is

(2.1)

implying that the inertia, damping and restoring forces balance the applied force. Specifically,
M is the mass (kg), k is the stiffness (N/m), and c is the damping coefficient (N-sec/m).
Furthermore, y(t) is the displacement (m), ÿ(t) the velocity (m/ sec), ÿ(t) the acceleration
(m/sec2), F(t)=F1f(t) the externally applied force (N) withf(t) its dimensionless time variation.
Finally, dots denote time derivatives d/dt. Obviously, eqn (2.1) is a second order differential
equation that needs to be solved for the displacement y(t).

2.2.1 Motion without damping

2.2.1.1 Free vibrations

The equation of dynamic equilibrium of an SDOF system in the absence of both damping and
external force is given below as

(2.2)

Thus, the oscillator undergoes free vibrations under the influence of an initial displacement
y(0)=y 0 and/or initial velocity ÿ(0)=ÿ0. The solution is simply

(2.3)

and implies a periodic, harmonic motion as shown in Figure 2.4. At this point, we respectively
define the circular frequency, the natural period and the frequency as
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Figure 2.4 Free vibration due to (a) initial displacement and (b) initial velocity.

follows:

(2.4)

(2.5)

(2.6)

2.2.1.2 Forced vibrations

We first look at the case where an external force F(t) is accompanied by zero initial conditions.
Specifically, we have a constant load F(t)=F 1 applied at time t=0 and subsequently maintained.
Equation (2.1) can be written as

(2.7)

and its solution is

 (2.8)

We define as Dynamic Load Factor (DLF) the ratio of the dynamic displacement at
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Figure 2.5 DLF for constant load F(t)=F1 .

any time instant to the displacement produced by static application of the load F(t)=F 1 as

(2.9)

A simple substitution of eqn (2.8) in eqn (2.9) gives

(2.10)

The DLF is dimensionless and measures the amount by which the dynamic displacement in
the SDOF system exceeds its equivalent static one. Figure 2.5 plots the DLF for the suddenly
applied and maintained load case, where doubling of the response is observed at certain time
instances.

2.2.1.3 Forced vibrations for various forcing functions

(a) General solution by superposition of impulses

The general closed form solution can be obtained by synthesis of the SDOF system response
to a series of impulses. Assume that the system is at rest and then acted upon by a constant
force F with instantaneous time duration td. The mass of the oscillator will experience an
instantaneous acceleration

(2.11)

which in turn produces an instantaneous velocity

(2.12)

where I is the impulse defined as force times duration.

All dynamic loads can be considered as a sequence of impulses of varying magnitude. Thus,
force F(τ) at time τ and for the ensuing time instant td imparts an initial velocity to the SDOF
oscillator of the following type:
(2.13)
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Thus, from eqn (2.3) the system experiences an instantaneous displacement y(t) equal to

(2.14)

Finally, the complete displacement history is evaluated by integrating from time t=0 to the
present time t as

(2.15)

If the static displacement due to the load magnitude F1 is

(2.16)

then

(2.17)

If we finally add the effect of initial conditions at t=0, then we have a generel, closed form
expression for the dynamic displacement of the SDOF system in the form of Duhamel’s
integral as

(2.18)

(b) Suddenly applied load of duration t d

Here we have a combination of constant load f(t)=1 until time t=td and free vibrations past
t>td with initial conditions y(t =td)\hbox and y(t=td). The resulting DLF factors are:

(2.19)

(2.20)

where yst=F1/k. Figure 2.6 plots the above results for two cases, where we observe an intense
response when the duration of the load on the oscillator is large (td=1.2T). If the load is on the
oscillator for a short time (td=0.1T), the dynamic response is less than the static one.

(c) Constant load with rise time t r

The time variation of this load is given by f(τ)=τ/tr,τ tr and f(τ)=1,τ t r. The DLF is evaluated
as
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Figure 2.6 DLF for load with duration time td.

Figure 2.7 DLF for load with rise time tr.

(2.21)

and Figure 2.7 plots two cases, one with a rapid (tr =0.2T) and the other with a slow (tr =3.33T)
application. We note that the latter case produces a quasi-static response in the SDOF
oscillator. Finally, in Figure 2.8 we have the maximum value of the DLFmax as function of the
time ratio tr/T.
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Figure 2.8 Maximum value of the DLF as a function of rise time tr.

2.2.1.4 Harmonic vibrations

Harmonic loads assume the form F(t)=F1 sin t, although the cosine function or the
exponential function with an imaginary argument can be used as well. With harmonic loads,
there is always danger of resonance (i.e. the structure may experience high or even unbounded
vibrations when its natural frequency coincides with that of the load). The equation of motion
is

(2.22)

and its solution in terms of the DLF (with y st=F1/k) and for y0=y0=0 has the following form:

(2.23)

We observe that the oscillations comprise two parts, the free part with frequency ω and the
forced part with frequency . Also, an approximate maximum value of the DLF is obtained
when and , i.e.

(2.24)

If we ignore the free vibration part, the maximum DLF is

(2.25)
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Figure 2.9 DLF for harmonic vibrations when

When , we have resonance effects and Using L’Hospital’s rule in the

limit, we obtain that when

(2.26)

Thus, the dynamic displacement diverges, but only after a finite number of oscillations. Also,
Figure 2.9 plots the DLF for the case where we see that the total factor, despite being
the superposition of two harmonic functions, is no longer harmonic but only a periodic
function of time.

2.2.2 Motion with damping

Damping produces forces which counteract the motions of the SDOF oscillator by absorbing
energy. All dynamic systems in practice exhibit a certain amount of damping.
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2.2.2.1 Free vibrations

The equation of motion for an SDOF system in the presence of damping is

(2.27)

and its solution without external loading (F(t)=0) is given below as

(2.28)

We also define the coefficient of damping and the damped natural frequency as follows:

(2.29)

(2.30)

There are three possibilities for , namely

(2.31)

which correspond to underdamped, critically damped and overdamped conditions. If

and eqn (2.28) becomes

(2.32)

The displacement is no longer a periodic function of time and the oscillator simply returns to
its original position without executing any vibrations. From the condition

(2.33)

we may compute the coefficient of critical damping as

(2.34)

Following that, the damping ratio is defined

 (2.35)

It should be noted here that the coefficient of damping is seldom used nowadays, with
preference given to damping ratio . Obviously, the two coefficients are related as
The effect of damping on the natural frequency is minimal; for instance, a 10 per cent of
critical damping ratio yields . It is rare to find civil engineering structures
exhibiting anything close to critical damping, although many mechanical components (such as
shock absorbers) do.
Damping can be experimentally measured by tracing the logarithmic decrement (i.e. the log
of the difference between two consecutive peaks in a displacement versus time plot for free
vibrations). Referring to Figure 2.10, we have the logarithmic decrement as
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Figure 2.10 Free vibration with damping due to an initial displacement.

(2.36)

For instance, when per cent, d is equal to 0.2π and the ratio of two consecutive
peaks is exp(0.2π)=1.87. Thus, a damping ratio of 10 per cent reduces the dynamic
displacements by a factor of 0.534 during each vibration cycle.

2.2.2.2 Forced vibrations

By analogy to the case of forced vibrations in the absence of damping, we now have that a
damped impulse element is

(2.37)

The complete expression in terms of a Duhamel integral can be found through time
integration of the above impulse, to which the effect of initial conditions is subsequently
superimposed. Thus,

(2.38)

As a special case consider F(t)=F1; substitution of the time function f(t)=1 in eqn (2.38) gives
the solution for a suddenly applied and maintained load as

(2.39)
Comparing Figures 2.5 and 2.11 clearly shows the effect of damping in reducing the
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Figure 2.11 Forced vibration with damping due to suddenly applied and maintained load.

Figure 2.12 Dynamic equilibrium of SDOF system with Coulomb friction.

amplitude of the dynamic displacements and in bringing about, after some time, quasi-static
conditions.

2.2.2.3 Coulomb damping

This type of damping is due to friction; as the SDOF oscillator moves on a rough surface, a
horizontal force develops, where is the dynamic friction coefficient and g is the
acceleration of gravity, and acts in direction opposite to the velocity as shown in Figure 2.12.
The resulting equation of motion for free vibrations is given below as

(2.40)

and the solution for an initial displacement is depicted in Figure 2.13.