TITLE

Force Vibration Experiment Resonance of Spring-Dashpot System with Damping.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the resonance of Spring-Dashpot system in different damping conditions.

APPARATUS

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

THEORY

Unbalance Exciter
Lever Arm
Damper
Control Unit (TM150)
Mechanical Recorder
Spring

All objects have their own natural frequency. For example, a string on a guitar is on its
natural frequency when it is strummed. When the string is strummed, an energy is applied thus
disturbed the particles in the string resulting a vibration at its natural frequency. Another example is
when in the case of an earthquake, the energy from the shaking ground is transferred to a particle in
the building materials. The building will vibrate in its natural frequency. The vibration will continue
until the energy dissipated (or damped).
When a force is applied to the already vibrating object, it is called force vibration. The system
will oscillated under the influence of an external force. At the beginning, the external force will
superimpose the restoring force of the system. Beats then occurs between the natural and force
vibration resulting transient state. In that time, the amplitude is irregular.
With damper, the transient will eventually gone resulting a constant amplitude. This is called
the steady state condition. In steady state, the system is oscillated at the frequency of the forced
energy not its natural frequency.
Basically, damping is a process which energy is taken from an oscillating system. One
example of the usage of damper is in the intelligent building that be built to withstand an earthquake.
The damper is use to dissipate the energy from the oscillated building to help prevent excess energy to
destroyed the building.
Damping condition
Undamped
No damper in the system
Underdamped
The damping force is insufficient to prevent oscillation. The system still oscillates about its
equilibrium position but the amplitude decreases exponentially with time.

The amplitude
decrease at the same
ratio at every oscillation
Critically damped

The damping force is just sufficient to prevent overshoot. There is no oscillation and the system
returns to its equilibrium position within the shortest possible time.

Overdamped
The damping force exceeds the case of critical damping. The system then returns very slowly to
its final position.

Resonance

The closer the applied frequency to the natural frequency the stronger the amplitude of the oscillation.
Resonance occur when the frequency of the applied force is the same with the natural frequency.
Under this condition, the vibrating system has maximum response to the external driving force. Due
to the presence of damping, the peak does not occur exactly at o. The resonant frequency, i.e. the
driving frequency at which the amplitude becomes a maximum, is slightly less than the natural
frequency of free vibration.

THE PRINCIPLE
When a force/forces is applied to a damping system as in Figure 1.0, we can see that a new
relationship have been introduced which is; the applied force is directly proportional with the velocity.

Figure 1.0

Figure 1.1

As we can see the FBD of this system in Figure 1.1, we can eventually derive the equation;

F0 sin t = m + c + kx

Eq. 1

Note that this equation is similar with the free vibration equation but with the applied force included.
We know that

k
m

and

c
2 km

Hence, equation 1.0 yields to:

+ 2 + x =
2

Fo
m sin t

Looking for the particular solution, we get:

F o /k
X0 =

m2 2 c 2
(1
) +( )
k
k

Where r = /n = frequency ratio.

F o/k
(1r 2 )2+(2 r)2

Eq. 2

EXPERIMENT PROCEDURES

1) The apparatus is set up as shown in the figure above.

2) The unbalanced exciter is set to 50%.
3) The frequency on the control unit is adjusted to 7.0 Hz.
4) The result is recorded using graph plotter at the end of the lever arm.
5) After 7 Hz frequency was plotted, adjust the frequency to 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, 8.0, 8.2, 8.4, 8.6,
8.8, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0 and 13.0.
6) Step 3 until 5 is repeated. This time using the damper in under damped condition, damper to
critical damped condition and over damped condition.
7) The result is recorded.
8) The result obtained is use to determine when the resonance happens in all 4 damped
condition.( overdamped, undamped, underdamped and critical damped)

RESULTS
Damper setting for resonance curve spring setting
k = 3.0 N/mm

a = 650 mm

c = 5 Ns/m

m = 1680 g

UNDAMPED OSCILLATION
Frequency, f (Hz)
Amplitude, X
(mm)

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

6.2

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

Frequency, f (Hz)
Amplitude, X
(mm)

6.8

7.0

7.2

7.4

7.6

7.8

8.0

0.0

0.4

0.5

0.9

1.0

1.0

1.1

Frequency,
f (Hz)
Amplitude,
X (mm)

8.6

8.8

9.0

10.0

11.0

12.0

13.0

2.5

8.2

9.7

2.1

1.2

1.1

1.0

Table 1

DAMPED OSCILLATION OPEN 150mm lever

Frequency, f (Hz)
Amplitude, X
(mm)

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

6.2

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

Frequency, f (Hz)
Amplitude, X
(mm)

6.8

7.0

7.2

7.4

7.6

7.8

8.0

0.0

0.5

0.6

0.9

1.0

1.2

1.5

Frequency, f
(Hz)
Amplitude, X
(mm)

8.6

8.8

9.0

10.0

11.0

12.0

13.0

4.6

10.0

9.0

2.2

1.2

1.0

0.9

Table 2