Introduction

Damping is restraining of vibratory motion. We have heard the word damping in the
subjects like oscillations, noise, alternating current, RLC circuits etc. Even though we had
no idea at that time, when we were playing with the swing its motion fizzled out
automatically. Its because of the damping.
Vibrations have desirable effects and adverse effects. Example for desirable effect is
music. But for most of the engineering applications vibrations are undesirable. So damping
out vibrations is a desirable effect in engineering applications.
When we are inside an automobile, since roads are not in the same conditions
everywhere, we with the automobile body undergo mechanical vibrations. So we should
feel some degree of uncomfortable. But in reality we do not. Why? What is done there to
reduce the vibrations and prevent uncomfortable?
Lets take another example. We know that Japan is highly vulnerable for earthquakes.
Most of them are slight earthquakes. During an earthquake ground is induced forced
vibrations. Then how can they maintain tall buildings without fail? What do they have in
there? After doing this practical well try to find out the answers for these.

Notations:
ar - Amplitude of the rth oscillation
T - Period of damped oscillation
x - Displacement from equilibrium position
l - Length of liquid column
m - Mass of liquid column
- Density of the liquid
A - Area of the cross section of the tube
c - Damping coefficient
- Damping ratio
- Un -damped natural frequency
k - Effective stiffness
g - Acceleration due to gravity

Procedure
Length of the u tube water column was set to 250 cm by measuring the height of
the liquid column by a meter ruler.
Then we put our mouth to the one end of the u tube and blow air to oscillate the
liquid column.
Five consecutive amplitudes and corresponding time is measured.

For one length practical was repeated 3 times.

Some amount of water was removed from the tab underneath to set the next length

of the liquid column.

Repeat the practical for 5 lengths.

Graph of ln(ar) vs r for l = 250cm

3.2

2.8

ln(ar)

2.6

2.4

2.2

2
0

3
r

Graph of ln(ar) vs r for l = 240cm

3.2

2.8

ln(ar)

2.6

2.4

2.2

2
0.5

1.5

2.5

3
r

3.5

4.5

5.5

Graph of ln(ar) vs r for l = 230cm

3.4

3.2

2.8

ln(ar)
2.6

2.4

2.2

2
0.5

1.5

2.5

3
r

3.5

4.5

5.5

Graph of ln(ar) vs r for l = 220cm

3.4

3.2

2.8

ln(ar)
2.6

2.4

2.2

2
0.5

1.5

2.5

3
r

3.5

4.5

5.5

Graph of ln(ar) vs r for l = 210cm

3.2

2.8

ln(ar)

2.6

2.4

2.2

2
0.5

1.5

2.5

3
r

3.5

4.5

5.5

Table for graph ln(ar) vs r for l = 250cm

r

ln(ar)

2.95

2.88

2.68

2.47

2.32

Gradient = M =

3.122
7

= 0.17

Table for graph ln(ar) vs r for l = 240cm

r

ln(ar)

3.12

2.91

2.72

2.51

2.32

Gradient =

3.322
6.6

= 0.2

Table for graph ln(ar) vs r for l = 230cm

r

ln(ar)

3.18

2.94

2.71

2.55

2.36

Gradient =

3.362
6.7

= 0.20

Table for graph ln(ar) vs r for l = 220cm

r

ln(ar)

3.15

2.87

2.66

2.43

2.31

Gradient =

3.322
6.3

= 0.21

Table for graph ln(ar) vs r for l = 210cm

r

ln(ar)

3.12

2.88

2.67

2.47

2.36

Gradient =

3.282
6.6

= 0.19

Using the gradients (m) we can find,

ln ( ar ) ln ( a r+1 )
m=
( r +1 ) r
ln ( a r )ln ( ar +1)

But we have,
ln

ar
2
=
a r+1 1 2

( )

Therefore,
2

m =

1 2
=

m
m +4 2
2

m
0.16
0.20
0.20
0.21
0.19

0.025
0.032
0.032
0.033
0.030

Period of oscillation:

T=

2
1 2

2
T 1 2

0.025

1/l

250

0.40

T
2.235

2
7.900158

0.032
0.032
0.033
0.030

240
230
220
210

0.42
0.43
0.45
0.48

2.205
2.148333
2.070833
2.030833

8.119832
8.553836
9.206662
9.571098

l
250
240
230
220
210

0.030
0.030
0.030
0.030
0.030

C=2

2.810722
2.849532
2.924694
3.034248
3.093719

3.365
3.23
3.09
2.96
2.83

0.57
0.55
0.54
0.53
0.52

we assumed that beta as the average of 5 values = 0.03

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8
sqrt(l)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2
Table for vs 1/l graph

0.025
0.032
0.032
0.033
0.030

Gradient=

1/l

250
240
230
220
210

0.40
0.42
0.43
0.45
0.48

9.57117.900
0.480.40

T
2.235
2.205
2.148333
2.070833
2.030833

= 20.88

Gravitational acceleration = 20.88/2 = 10.44 ms-2

7.900158
8.119832
8.553836
9.206662
9.571098

vs 1/l graph

12

10

0
0.39

0.4

0.41

0.42

0.43

0.44
1/l

0.45

0.46

0.47

0.48

0.49

Discussion
About the practical
Here Im going to discuss the importance of this experiment. Here
we induced vibratory motion to a liquid column. What we could see
from our results is the amplitude of the vibration is gradually decreased
and fizzles out with the time. Why? Because it acts like a damper.
Because of the viscosity of the fluid an energy loss occurs converting
the kinetic energy of vibratory motion to other type of energy such as
heat. By mathematically modeling this, we could see that the gradient
of ln(ar) vs r graph showing this decreasing amplitude. But at what time
it decays down faster? Thats whats important to us as engineers.
Because we need to reduce vibrations as soon as possible, to reduce
undesirable effects like fatigue. The gradient of the ln(ar) vs r graph is
what matters here. Higher the gradient, lesser the time to decrease the
vibration. So its obvious that the length of the liquid column also
matters. And also un-damped natural frequency is inversely
proportional to the length of the liquid column. But the damping
coefficient is proportional to the square root of the length of the liquid
column. So we have a compromise of the length of the liquid column.
And at the end result we could see that damping coefficient is
independent of the length of the liquid column.

Application Aspect
As I stated in the introduction what happens in the automobile is
there is a damper (viscous damper) usually called shock absorber. This
is how it reduces uncomfortable for the passengers travelling inside.
And lets look at the Japan example. How do they safeguard tall
buildings?
The need of mitigate wind, ocean wave and earthquake induced
vibrations in structures like tall buildings, long span bridges, offshore
platforms has led the interest of damping devices. The impact dampers
are a very useful way to suppress unwanted high amplitude vibrations
in small scale systems. But for large structures its difficult. Because
advancement of the technology allow tall buildings and other
structures to be built from light flexible material, with relatively low
intrinsic damping. Vibrations are increased because the stiffness of the
building is decreased. Traditionally we increased the stiffness by adding
more mass. But its not cost effective. So If we dont do something for it
those buildings are highly vulnerable to fail.

The response for this is to dissipate the vibration energy by auxiliary

damping devices. A tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) is a special
type of dampers relying on a liquid in a u tube like container to
counteract the forces acting on the structure. This is how tall buildings
in Japan are secured.