428 CHAPTER 4 VIBRATION UNDER GENERAL FORCING CONDITIONS

4.8 Numerical Methods

The determination of the response of a system subjected to arbitrary forcing functions
using numerical methods is called numerical simulation. The analytical methods discussed
so far become tedious and sometimes even impossible to use in finding the response of a
system if the forcing function or excitation cannot be described in simple analytical form,
or if experimentally determined force data (such as the ground acceleration history mea-
sured during an earthquake) is to be used. Numerical simulations can be used to check the
accuracy of analytical solutions, especially if the system is complex. In a similar manner,
the numerical solutions are to be checked using analytical methods wherever possible. The
numerical methods of solving single-degree-of-freedom systems subjected to arbitrary
forcing functions are considered in this section.
Analytical solutions are extremely useful in understanding the system s behavior with
respect to changes in its parameters. The analytical solutions directly help in designing sys-
tems to meet any specified response characteristics by selecting the parameter values appro-
priately. If analytical solution becomes difficult, the response of the system can be found
using a suitable numerical integration procedure. Several methods are available for numeri-
cally integrating ordinary differential equations. The Runge-Kutta methods are quite popu-
lar for the numerical solution of differential equations.
Consider the equation of motion of a damped single-degree-of-freedom system subject
to an arbitrary force f(t):
$ #
mx(t) + cx(t) + kx(t) = f(t) (4.70)
# #
with the initial conditions x (t = 0) = x0 and x (t = 0) = x0. Most numerical methods
assume that the differential equation is in the form of a first-order differential equation (or
a set of simultaneous first-order differential equations). As such, we need to convert the
second-order differential equation, Eq. (4.70), into an equivalent set of two first-order dif-
ferential equations. For this, we introduce the unknown functions

# dx(t) #
x1(t) = x(t), x2(t) = x(t) = K x1(t) (4.71)
dt

and rewrite Eq. (4.70) as

$ #
mx(t) = - cx(t) - kx(t) + f(t) (4.72)

or, in view of the functions x 1(t) and x 2(t) introduced in Eq. (4.71),
#
mx2 = - cx2(t) - kx1(t) + f(t) (4.73)

Equation (4.73) along with the second relation given in Eq. (4.71) can be expressed as
#
x1(t) = x2(t) (4.74)
 4.8 NUMERICAL METHODS 429

# c k 1
x2(t) = x2(t) - x1(t) + f(t) (4.75)
m m m
Equations (4.74) and (4.75) represent two first-order differential equations which together
denote Eq. (4.70). Equations (4.74) and (4.75) can be expressed in vector form as
#! ! !
X(t) = F(X, t) (4.76)
where

X(t) = b r, X(t) = b # r,
! #! #
x1(t) x1(t)
x2(t) x2(t)

F (X, t) = b r K c k s
x2(t)
B B F1(t)
c 1 (4.77)
F2(t) - x1(t) - x2(t) + f(t)
m m m

4.8.1 In most of the numerical methods, improved solutions are found from the present solution
Runge-Kutta (starting with a known initial value at time zero) according to the formula
Methods
xi + 1 = xi + ¢xi (4.78)

where x i + 1 is the value of x at t = t i + 1, x i is the value of x at t = t i, and ¢x is the incre-

mental improvement added to x i. If the solution, x(t), is to be found over the time interval
0 t T, the total time T is divided into n equal parts with ¢t = T/n, so that
t 0 = 0, t 1 = ¢t, t 2 = 2 ¢t, Á , t i = i ¢t, Á , t n = n ¢t = T.
In the Runge-Kutta methods, the approximate formula used for obtaining the solution
x i + 1 from x i is made to coincide with the Taylor s series expansion of x at x i + 1 up to terms
of order (¢t)k, where k denotes the order of the Runge-Kutta method. The Taylor s series
expansion of x(t) at t + ¢t is given by
2 3
# $ (¢t) ... (¢t)
x(t + ¢t) = x(t) + x ¢t + x + x + Á (4.79)
2! 3!
In contrast to Eq. (4.79), which requires higher-order derivatives, the Runge-Kutta meth-
ods do not require explicitly derivatives beyond the first.
In the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method, which! is most commonly used, the following
recurrence formula is used to find the values of X(t) at different time stations t i starting

from the known initial vector, X0 = b # r = b # 0 r:

! x(t = 0) x
x(t = 0) x0

! ! 1 ! ! ! !
Xi + 1 = Xi + [K1 + 2K2 + 2K3 + K4] (4.80)
6
430 CHAPTER 4 VIBRATION UNDER GENERAL FORCING CONDITIONS

where
! ! !
K1 = hF(Xi, ti) (4.81)

K2 = hF ¢ Xi + K1, ti + h
! ! ! 1 ! 1
(4.82)
2 2

K3 = hF ¢ Xi + K2, ti + h
! ! ! 1 ! 1
(4.83)
2 2
! ! ! !
K4 = hF(Xi + K3, ti + 1) (4.84)
!
The method is stable and self starting that is, only the value of the vector function F at a
single previous time station is required to find the function value at the current time station.
The following example illustrates the procedure.

Response Using Runge-Kutta Method

EXAMPLE 4.30
Find the response of a single-degree-of-freedom system subjected to a force with the equation of
motion

$ #
500x + 200x + 750x = F(t) = 2000 (E.1)

so that m = 500, c = 200, k = 750, and F(t) = F0 = 2000. Use the fourth-order Runge-Kutta
# #
method. Assume the initial conditions as x(t = 0) = x0 = 0 and x(t = 0) = x0 = 0.

Solution: The equation of motion given by (E.1) can be expressed as a system of two first-order
differential equations as shown in Eq. (4.76) with

f = b r = c s
x2(t)
! f1(t)
1
f2(t) (2000 - 200x2 - 750x1)
500

and

X0 = b 1 r = b r
! x (0) 0
x2(0) 0

The response is computed over the time (0, T). The time duration of T = 20 s is divided into 400
equal time steps so that

T 20
¢t = h = = = 0.05 s
400 400
 4.9 RESPONSE TO IRREGULAR FORCING CONDITIONS USING NUMERICAL METHODS 431

TABLE 4.1
i x1(i) = x(ti) x2(i) = x(ti)

1 0.000000e +000 0.000000e +000

2 4.965271e -003 1.978895e -001
3 1.971136e -002 3.911261e -001
4 4.398987e -002 5.790846e -001
5 7.752192e -002 7.611720e -001
6 1.199998e -001 9.368286e -001
7 1.710888e -001 1.105530e +000
8 2.304287e- 001 1.266787e +000
9 2.976359e -001 1.420150e +000
10 3.723052e -001 1.565205e +000
o
391 2.675602e +000 -6.700943e -002
392 2.672270e +000 -6.622167e -002
393 2.668983e +000 -6.520372e -002
394 2.665753e +000 -6.396391e -002
395 2.662590e +000 -6.251125e -002
396 2.659505e +000 -6.085533e -002
397 2.656508e +000 -5.900634e -002
398 2.653608e + 000 -5.697495e -002
399 2.650814e +000 -5.477231e -002
400 2.648133e +000 -5.241000e-002

Thus t 0 = 0, t 1 = 0.05, t 2 = 0.10, t 3 = 0.15, Á , t 400 = 20.0. The Runge-Kutta

! method is applied
to find the response of the system (x 1(t)). Typical solution vectors generated Xi for i = 1, 2, 3, Á ,
400 are shown in Table 4.1. The response of the system is shown plotted in Fig. 4.32.

4.9 Response to Irregular Forcing Conditions Using Numerical Methods

In the method of direct numerical integration of the equation of motion (numerical solution
of differential equations) presented in Section 4.8, it was assumed that the forcing func-
tions F(t) are available as functions of time in an explicit manner. In many practical prob-
lems, however, the forcing functions F(t) are not available in the form of analytical
expressions. When a forcing function is determined experimentally, F(t) may be known as
an irregular curve. Sometimes only the values of F(t) = Fi at a series of points t = ti may