The Response of an Undamped Two-degree-of-freedom System

Subjected to Base Displacement via Modal Analysis

Revision A

By Tom Irvine
Email: tom@vibrationdata.com
July 6, 2015
__________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

Consider the two-degree-of-freedom.

x2
m2

kx22

x1
m1

k1
yy

Figure 1.

A free-body diagram of mass 1 is given in Figure 2. A free-body diagram of mass 2 is given

in Figure 3.

1
 k2 ( x2 - x1 )

x1
m1

k1 ( x1 - y )

Figure 2.

Determine the equation of motion for mass 1.

 F  m1 x1 (1)

m1 x1  k 2 x 2  x1   k1 x1  y (2)

m1 x1  k1 x1  k 2 x 2  x1   k1 y (3)

m1 x1  k1 x1  k 2 x1  x 2   k1 y (4)

m1 x1  k1  k 2  x1  k 2 x 2  k1 y (5)

x2
m2

k2 (x2-x1)

Figure 3.

2
Derive the equation of motion for mass 2.

 F  m 2 x 2 (6)

m 2 x 2  k 2 x 2  x1  (7)

m 2 x 2  k 2 x 2  x1   0 (8)

m 2 x 2  k 2 x 2  k 2 x1  0 (9)

Assemble the equations in matrix form.

m1 0   x1  k1  k 2  k 2   x1   k1 y 

 0 m  x     k 
k 2  x 2   0 
(10)
 2 2  2

Let

m 0 
M 1  (11)
 0 m2 

k  k 2  k2 
K 1
k 2 
(12)
  k2

k y 
F 1  (13)
 0 

M x  Kx  F (14)

The homogenous form is

m1 0   x1  k1  k 2  k 2   x1  0

 0 m  x     k 
k 2  x 2  0
(15)
 2 2  2

3
Seek a solution of the form

x  q exp  jt  (16)

x  j q exp  jt  (17)

x  2 q exp  jt  (18)

Substitute into equation (15).

 2 m1 0  k1  k 2  k 2  0

     q exp  jt     (19)
  0 m2    k 2 k 2  0

 2 m1 0  k1  k 2  k 2  0

    k  q    (20)
  0 m 2   2 k 2  0

Equation (20) is an example of a generalized eigenvalue problem. The eigenvalues can be

found by setting the determinant equal to zero.

 m 0  k1  k 2  k 2 
det 2  1   k 0
k 2  
(21)
  0 m 2   2

k  k   m 2  k2 
det  1 2 1
0 (22)
  k 2 k 2  m 2 2 

k
1  k 2   m1
2
k 2  m 2
2
 k 2
2
0 (23)

k 2
 2

1  k 2    m1 k 2   m 2  k 2 k1  k 2   k 2  0
2
(24a)

4 m1m 2  2 m1k 2  m 2 k1  k 2   k1k 2  0 (24b)

4
The eigenvalues are the roots of the polynomial.

 b  b 2  4ac
12  (25)
2a

 b  b 2  4ac
2 2  (26)
2a

where

a  m1m 2 (27)

b  m1k 2  m 2 k1  k 2  (28)

c  k1k 2 (29)


m k  m 2 k1  k 2    m1k 2  m 2 (k1  k 2 )2 - 4m1m 2 k1k 2
12  1 2 (30)
2m1m 2

2 m1k 2  m 2 k1  k 2   m1k 2  m 2 (k1  k 2 )2 - 4m1m 2 k1k 2

2  (31)
2m1m 2

The eigenvectors are found via the following equations.

 K  1 2 M q 1  0 (32)

 K  22 M q 2  0 (33)

where

q 
q 1   11  (34)
q12 

5
 q 
q 2   21  (35)
q 22 

An eigenvector matrix Q can be formed. The eigenvectors are inserted in column format.

Q   q1 | q2  (36)

q q 21 
Q   11  (37)
q12 q 22 

The eigenvectors represent orthogonal mode shapes.

Each eigenvector can be multiplied by an arbitrary scale factor. A mass-normalized
eigenvector matrix Q̂ can be obtained such that the following orthogonality relations are
obtained.

Q̂ T M Q̂  I (38)

and

Q̂ T K Q̂   (39)

where
superscript T represents transpose
I is the identity matrix
 is a diagonal matrix of eigenvalues

Note that

 q̂ q̂12 
Q̂   11  (40)
q̂ 21 q̂ 22 

 q̂ q̂ 21 
Q̂ T   11
q̂ 22 
(41)
q̂12

6
Now define a modal coordinate  ( t ) such that

x  Q̂  (42)

The displacement terms are

x 1  q̂11 1  q̂12 2 (43)

x 2  q̂ 21 1  q̂ 22 2 (44)

Substitute equation (42) into the equation of motion,

M Q̂ 
  K Q̂   F (45)

Premultiply by the transpose of the normalized eigenvector matrix.

Q̂ T M Q̂ 
  Q̂ T K Q̂   Q̂ T F (46)

The orthogonality relationships yield

     Q̂ T F
I  (47)

For the sample problem,

1 0  
1   2 0   1   q̂11 q̂ 21  k1y
0 1     1    
q̂ 22   0 
(48)
  
  2  0 2 2  2  q̂12

Note that the two equations are decoupled in terms of the modal coordinate.

Equation (48) yields two equations

1  12 1  q̂11k1 y

 (49)

 2  2 2 2  q̂12 k1 y
 (50)

7
Let

y(t )  A sint  (51)

By substitution

1  12 1  q̂11k1 A sint 

 (52)

 2  2 2 2  q̂12 k1 A sint 
 (53)

Now take the Laplace transform for equation (52).

 
1  12 1  Lq̂11k1 A sint 
L (54)

Let

1 (s)  L 1 t  (55)

s 2
 s1 (0)   
 1 (0)  12 1 (s)  q̂11k1
A
s2  2
(56)

For all initial conditions equal to zero,

s 2  12 1(s)  q̂11k1 s 2A 2 (57)

A
1 (s)  q̂11k1
s 2

 12 s 2   2  (58)

8
The inverse Laplace transform from Reference 1 is


 
 1 
sin t   sin 1t ,   1
1 1
1 ( t )  q̂11k1A  (59)

 1     1
2 2


Similarly,


 
 1 
 sin t   sin 2 t ,   2
1 1
2 ( t )  q̂12 k1A (60)

 2     2
2 2


The physical displacements are

x 1  q̂11 1  q̂12 2 (61)

  1 
sin t   sin 1t 
1 1
x 1 ( t )  q̂11 q̂11k1A   
 12   2   1 
  1 
sin t   sin 2 t 
1 1
 q̂12 q̂12 k1A   
 2 2   2   2 
(62)

x 2  q̂ 21 1  q̂ 22 2 (63)

  1 
sin t   sin 1t 
1 1
x 2 ( t )  q̂ 21 q̂11k1A  
 12   2   1 
  1 
sin t   sin 2 t 
1 1
 q̂ 22 q̂12 k1A   
 2 2   2   2 
(64)

9
Reference

1. T. Irvine, Table of Laplace Transforms, Revision J, Vibrationdata, 2011.

APPENDIX A

Initial Conditions

Now consider the initial conditions. Recall


x  Q̂  (A-1)

Thus

x0  Q̂  0 (A-2)

Premultiply by Q̂ T M .

Q̂ T M x0  Q̂ T M Q̂  0 (A-3)

Recall

Q̂ T M Q̂  I (A-4)

Q̂ T M x0  I  0 (A-5)

Q̂ T
M x0   0 (A-6)

10
Finally, the transformed initial displacement matrix is

 0  Q̂ T M x0 (A-7)

Similarly, the transformed initial velocity is


 0  Q̂ T M x 0
 (A-8)

11