Estimating the Damping in a Single Degree of Freedom System - Lab Report Example

The movements include free response and forced response. Free response is made as a result of initial conditions while forced response is made as a result of outgoing input to the system. Free response in this context consists of oscillations at a particular frequency which is natural. When there is no dumping in the situation, the oscillation continues in the system indefinitely. When there is dumping, the 1 Degree of Freedom undergoes decaying oscillations. Forced response in 1 Degree of Freedom consists of vibrations that occur at a frequency which is majorly dictated by the input of force.

Force response increases when there is also an increase in input. When there occur an initial transient portion of response, the steady state response contains an oscillation which is at the same frequency as the input. The amplitude and phase in this situation depend on the frequency of input. The main requirements in the experiment include an oscilloscope, a potentiometer, a variable dumping unit, a digital weighing scale, a helical spring and signal amplifier, Experiment can be carried out for a free a free vibration and forced vibration.

For this laboratory, a mechanical strip-chart recorder is to be used to capture the free vibration motion of a simple single-degree-of-freedom system. The strip-chart recorder consists of a marking pen a fixed to amass carriage, which is movable in the vertical direction, and a continuous strip of paper which, when driven by a rotating drum, moves in a horizontal direction past the pen. A drawing of the single-degree-of-freedom system, with the strip-chart record The forced vibration will be provided by a shaker, which is driven by a sine wave function generator.

The system is attached to the shaker plate and then forced into motion. The motion is sensed using two accelerometers, one attached to the base and one attached to the upper portion of the system.