Date of Experiment:24-09-2014

Report due date:10-08-2014

Report submission date: 10-08-
2014
Checked by: Dr. Housseini

Item/marks
Format/10
Abstract and
Introduction/10

Figures and Diagrams/15
Materials and
Method/10

Results Discussions/45
References/10
Total




Mechanical Vibration Laboratory Report:
Free Undamped Vibration





Name & ID:
Ahmad syabil ahmad zorin 0309110
Group Members:
Hidayat Hamzah
Alex Laimon
Aisyah Hanis
Low Heng Yan

School of Engineering
Taylors University
Malaysia
10
th
October 2014

CONTENTS


Abstract..2

1.0 Introduction.....2

2.0 Experiment Design..4

2.1Materials .........4

2.2Methods .....4

2.3Procedures .....5

3.0Results & Discussions........6

4.0Conclusions & Recommendations......7

References...7

Appendices..10






ABSTRACT
The experiment is carry to investigate the frequencies of undamped oscillation of springs
related to certain variables that will affect the system. Variables that are available in this
experiment are the thickness of the spring and also the distance of the beam attached to the
spring. The experiment ran for 30 minutes in a laboratory environment with less random
errors, such as wind, rain or other factor that can affect the result. Further details of the
experiment will be explain as below
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Vibratory system mainly consists of a system which is able to store potential energy, kinetic
energy and also gradually losing energy. In vibration system, the kinetic energy and potential
energy are alternating between one another until gradually it lost energy due to dampener.
The simplest vibratory system consists of a spring with, k coefficient of spring, and a mass.
In additional, this system, by means the spring, is attached to an immovable support. This is
to ensure a single translation motion of direction is obtain from this. Therefore, the spring
will only move in either X direction or only Y direction. Due to this, it is called a single
degree of freedom system. Due to un additional of external force during the vibration of the
spring due to the mass is displaced, this is said that the system has free vibration.
The machine that will be used in this experiment is called the free and forced vibration
apparatus. This machine is made of aluminium frames which consist of a beam/ bar which is
mounted at the left end of the frame. Helical spring is attached to the beam to enable the
beam to oscillate. The springs can be change depend on the user. Other than that, it has
exciters which are control by the control unit. The exciter control unit responsible in moving
the graph paper during this experiment. This machine is widely used in the laboratory to
investigate natural vibration damped vibration, forced vibration, resonance and amplitude and
phase response. Therefore this machine is suitable to be used for our experiment.
In this experiment, few equations are used to calculate responding variables. The equations
are as below:
Equation of motion is formed with the availability of the moment equilibrium at the pivot
point of the beam

=
As we know the formula for spring force, it consists of the deflection of spring, x and also
spring constant, k. Due to small angle, equation will be as below:
= =
The mass moment of inertia of the beam is:

=

2
3

The equation of motion is thus, as below:
+
3
2

2
= 0
The frequency, f due to the harmonic oscillation above is as below:
=
1
2

3
2

2

The natural angular velocity is as below

2
=
3
2

2

The periodic time is as below:

= 2

3
2

2



Figure 1: experimental set up




2.0 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Figure 2:apparatus set up

2.1 materials
pen
graph paper
free and force vibration apparatus
3 springs with different stiffness, k = 0.84N/mm, 1.44N/mm, 3.09N/mm


2.2 Method
Osculating graph is obtained by realising the cantilever beam from a certain position at the
same time, the switch for the paper graph roller is switched on. When the osculation is stop,
the switched is switched off. This is repeated three times using the same variable to reduce
error in the experiment. After that the spring is changed with another spring that has different
stiffness value.

2. 3 Procedure
1. the apparatus is set up as figure 2 above
2. Pen is placed in the calliper and graph paper is placed. Graph paper is checked to
insure that the ball pen is not to near to the graph paper. This can cause the graph
paper to tear and damaged the whole paper
3. beam is adjusted so that it is 90 degree with the side frame of the vibration apparatus
4. Spring with stiffness of 0.84 N/mm is screwed at the bar and the upper part frame of
the vibration apparatus machine.
5. Distance of the spring from the pivot point O,a is taken and recorded
6. The stiffness of the spring, k is taken and recorded
7. The beam is then pull down to a certain extend and is released, at the same time the
oscillator machine is switched on
8. After the beam has stop osculating, the oscillator is switch off and the graph is
recorded
9. Step 5 to 8 is then repeat for 3 times to reduce the error in this experiment. The result
is than recorded
10. Step 9 is repeated using 3 different distance, a. the result is recorded
11. Step 10 is then repeated using different stiffness of spring, k
12. Result is then recorded

3.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Graph 1: spring stiffness of 840 N/m

Graph 2:spring stiffness of 1440 N/m



Graph 3: spring stiffness of 3090N/m

Table 1:free undamped vibration data tabulation


set
spring stiffness, k (N/mm)
length of a (m) 0.2 0.35 0.5 0.2 0.35 0.5 0.2 0.35 0.5
natural frequency, Wo 19.99 34.98 49.97 13.64 23.88 34.11 10.42 18.24 26.05
experimental period,T(s) 0.35 0.2 0.15 0.45 0.25 0.175 no data 0.45 0.25
experimental frequency,(Hz) 2.86 5.00 6.67 2.22 4.00 5.71 no data 2.22 4.00
theoretical frequency (Hz) 3.24 5.67 8.1 2.21 3.87 5.53 1.69 2.96 4.22
percentage error (%) 11.82 11.82 0.18 -0.55 -3.36 -3.33 no data 24.92 5.21
1 2 3
3090 1440 840
Based from the above table, we could see the values for experimental period,T(s), which we
calculated the boxes from the graph paper. One small box represent 0.05 second. Therefore to
calculate the experimental period, the boxes from one peak to another peak (one complete
cycle) is calculate and multiply by 0.05s. To calculate the experimental frequency, 1 will be
divided by the experimental period,T.
Experimental frequency= 1/T
As for the theoretical frequency, the formula that is given before is used.
As we seen from the graph, we could see that as spring stiffness is increase the experimental
period is getting shorter when we compare with the same a.840N/m spring stiffness has a
period of 0.25second. As for 1440 N/m spring stiffness has 0.175 s period and lastly
3090N/m spring stiffness, which are the highest among all has a period of 0.15 second. This
is because as the spring is stiffer, it will tend to oscillate faster, therefore produce shorter
period, thus bigger frequency. Other than that, distance a is one of the factor that related to
the frequency and the period of the graph. For this experiment, distance a has been set for
all three springs. The distance a are 0.2m, 0.35m, 0.5m. As we picked spring stiffness of
1440N/m, we compared both values of theoretical and experimental values. We can see that
for the distance of a from 0.2m, 0.35m to 0.5m, the experimental frequency give a values of
2.22Hz,4.00Hz, and 5.71Hz while for the theoretical frequency, it showed a slightly different
values, which are 2.21Hz, 3.87Hz, and 5.53Hz. To see the difference more clearly
percentage error has been calculated so that differentiate and comparison can be made.
As we see the percentage errors, we could see that there are few that are 10% or more and
this may be due to energy loss such as the kinetic energy during the process of oscillation.
This is maybe due to the free force vibration machine itself not being properly maintain. This
will cause the machine to have less lubrication thus losing kinetic energy in that sense. Other
than that, it may due to the friction happen between the pen and the graph paper. The nearer
the graph paper is with the pen, the higher the pressure the pen will give to the paper. Due to
this it might even cause the paper to be torn. During this moment, kinetic energy is lost.
As we can see the percentage errors in the table, we could see that there are negative values.
This shows that human error might occur during the experiment session, for example, the
initial position is too low or too high that might cause the displacement to exceed the required
value. Therefore, the experimental result will be more that it should, thus giving negative
percentage of error.
Finally, we could see that the graph of the free undamped vibration is gradually diminished
even though there was no damper used in this experiment. As we know free undamped
vibration osculate due to its initial disturbance without any external force acting on it.
However, in real application, the amplitude will gradually diminished in time. This is due to
other factors such as the air or the temperature that might affect the oscillation of the
vibration.

4.0 CALCULATION AND RECOMENDATION
In conclusion, we can conclude that by changing the distance a and the stiffness of the
spring, it will affect the frequency of the vibration. However, the theoretical values might be
slightly different compare to the experimental values we obtain in this experiment. This is
due to the fact that errors might occurred during the procedure of the experiment. Errors such
as friction that happen during the experiment, might reduce the kinetic energy in time, thus
giving different result compared to the theoretical experiment. Other than that, the experiment
was not done in a vacuum and close environment. Therefore random errors might occur.
Other than that the force and vibration apparatus might not be well maintain. Thus lack of
lubrication at the beam would cause the vibration to loss energy due to friction
Therefore few recommendations are needed so that in the future, this random errors can be
minimised. First of all, the force and vibration machine apparatus need to be well maintained
to give a better reading. Before experiment is started, everything need to be calibrated. This is
to ensure there are no systematic errors occur. Finally, to reduce error, repeat the experiment
for several time so that the average can be calculated, by doing this, the result will be more
accurate.

REFERENCE
Ganesh, R. (2010). Control Engineering. Pearson Education India
Damped Vibration, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Retrieved 2 August 2014,
from
(http://www.iitr.ac.in/outreach/web/CIRCIS/PG/AVN/RC/Revision%20of%20concep
ts3_Damped.pdf)