THEORY OF MACHINES AND

MECHANISMS II
Mechanical IV/I
Chapter 7

Vibration of Two Degree

of Freedom Systems
1
General mechanical systems require several degrees of freedom for a
meaningful model. The single degree of freedom model, besides
dealing with certain practical examples, it helped to formulate the
basic theory of vibrations of mechanical systems.
A natural extension of single degree of freedom model systems is to
consider two degrees of freedom models.

When a system requires two

coordinates to describe its motion, it
is said to have two degrees of
freedom.

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A two degrees of freedom system will have two natural frequencies.

When free vibration takes place at one of these natural frequencies, a

definite relationship exists between the amplitudes of the two
coordinates, and the configuration is referred to as the normal mode.

The two degrees of freedom system will then have two normal mode
vibrations corresponding to the two natural frequencies.

Free vibration initiated under any condition will in general be the

superposition of the two normal mode vibrations.

However, forced harmonic vibration will take place at the frequency

of the excitation and the amplitude of the two coordinates will tend
to a maximum at the two natural frequencies

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7.1 Vibrations of Undamped Two Degrees of Freedom
Systems

The equation of motion for the two masses can be written as

………. (1)

These equations may be rewritten as,

………. (2)

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Let us now assume the solutions for x1 and x2 under steady state
conditions as harmonic vibrations; i.e.
………. (3)

where A1 and A2 are the amplitudes of the two masses respectively

and  is the frequency of harmonic motion of both the masses.
Substituting Equations (3) in Equations (2), we have

………. (4)

Equations (4) can be rearranged as

…. (5a) …. (5b)
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 Equating Equations (5a) and (5b)
………. (6)

………. (7)

Alternative Method
Equations (4) can be expressed matrix form as
………. (8)

These are homogeneous linear algebraic equations in A1 and A2. The

solution is obtained by equating to zero the determinant of the
coefficients A1 and A2, i.e.,
………. (9)

The expansion of Equation (9) results the Equation (7).

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Letting 2 = , the above determinant leads to the characteristic
equation

………. (10)

The above equation is quadratic in  (= 2) and gives two values of

 (= 2), and therefore two positive values of  corresponding to the
two natural frequencies of the system. Equation (10) is called
Frequency Equation since the roots of this equation give the natural
frequencies of the system.
If we assume k1 = k2 = k3 = k and m1 = m2 = m, frequency equation
can be written as
………. (11)

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The two roots of this equation are

………. (12)

………. (13)

The natural frequencies of the system are then found to be

……. (14)

Amplitudes ratio can be determined by substituting natural

frequencies in Equation (5a) or (5b). For 1 = 12 = k/m, we obtain

………. (15)

which is the amplitude ratio or mode shape corresponding to the first

natural frequency.
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The amplitude ratio being 1 means that the amplitudes of vibration of
two masses are equal and the two motions are in phase.
Again for 2 = 22 = 3k/m, we obtain
………. (16)
for mode shape corresponding to the second normal mode. The
amplitude ratio being –1 means that the amplitudes of vibration of
two masses are equal but the two motions are out of phase.

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If the two masses are given equal initial displacements in the same
direction and released, they will vibrate in the first principle mode of
vibration with the first natural frequency. Also if, they are given
equal initial displacements in the opposite directions and released,
they will vibrate in the second mode of vibration with the second
natural frequency.
If, however, the two masses are given unequal initial displacements
in any direction, their motion will be superposition of two harmonic
motions corresponding to the two natural frequencies as given below

………. (17)

It should be noted here that the first terms on the right correspond to
the first normal mode at natural frequency 1. Its amplitude ratio is
also A1/A2 = 1= A/A, which is the first normal mode shape.

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The second terms oscillate at frequency 2 with amplitude ratio A1/A2
= – 1= – B/B, in conformity with the second normal mode vibration.
The phase 1 and 2 simply allows the freedom of shifting the time
origin and does not alter the character of the normal modes. The
constants A, B, 1 and 2 are sufficient to satisfy the four initial
conditions .

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7.2 Vibrations of Damped Two Degrees of Freedom
Systems

The differential equations of motion for the two masses are given as
………. (18)

Rearranging the above equations

………. (19)

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These are two coupled linear differential equations of second order
and their solution may be of the form
………. (20)

Substituting Equation (20) in Equations (19), we get

………. (21)

The above equations will have values of A1 and A2 are different form
zero only if the determinant formed from their coefficients is zero,
i.e., if
…. (22)

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Expanding and rearranging the above equation,

…. (23)

This is called the characteristic equation of the system and the values
of s have to be obtained from this equation. There will be four values
of s for which Equations (20) will be solutions of Equations (19), and
so the general solutions are

………. (24)

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where the coefficients A11 in the first of these equations are four
arbitrary constants to be determined from the initial conditions and
the coefficients A21 in the second equation are related to A11 from
either of the Equations (21) by substituting for s the corresponding
value of s1 obtained from Equation (23), i.e.,

………. (24)

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7.3 Forced Harmonic Vibrations of Two Degrees of
Freedom Systems
Consider the system shown in
Figure with the exciting force
F1sint acting on mass m1. The
differential equation of motion
can be written as

………. (25)
For the steady state solution
………. (26)

Substituting Equation (26) in Equations (25), we get

………. (27)
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Solving for X1 and X2 from the above equations, we get

………. (28)

If we assume k1 = k2 = k3 = k and m1 = m2 = m, Equations (28) can be

rewritten as,

………. (29)

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As we know

The denominator of Equations (29) can be expressed as

Then Equations (28) become

………. (30)

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Alternative forms of X1 and X2 are then

………. (31)

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7.4 Vibration Absorber
The expressions for X1 and X2 can be obtained by
putting k3 = 0 in Equation (28)

………. (32)

The numerator of the expression of X1 of Equation (32) vanishes

when  = k 2 / m2 , thereby making the mass m motionless at this
1
frequency. No such stationary condition exists for mass m2.
The fact that mass which is being excited can have zero amplitude of
vibration under certain conditions by coupling it to another spring
mass system form the principle of dynamic vibration absorber.
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Divide numerators and denominators of Equations (32) by k1k2 and
introduce the following notations

Equations (32) can then be rewritten in the dimensionless form as

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First part of the Equations (33) clearly shows that X1 = 0 when  =
22; that is when the excitation frequency is equal to the natural
frequency of the absorber, the main system amplitude becomes zero
even though it is excited by a harmonic force.
Similarly substituting  = 22 in the second part of Equation (33) ,
we get

………. (34)
The above equation shows that the spring force k2X2 on the main
mass due to the amplitude X2 of the absorber mass is equal and
opposite to the exciting force on the main mass resulting in no
motion of the main system. The main system vibrations have been
reduced to zero and these vibrations have been taken up by the
22
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absorber system. MECHANISM II
The addition of a vibration absorber to main system is not much
meaningful unless the main system is operating at resonance or at
least near it. Under these conditions we have  = 11. But for the
absorber to be effective  = 22. Therefore, for the effectiveness of
the absorber at the operating frequency corresponding to the natural
frequency of the main system alone, we have
………. (35)

When this condition is fulfilled, the absorber is known to be a tuned

absorber. For a tuned absorber, Equations (33) now become

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………. (36) 23
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To have a tuned absorber, we can have many combinations of k2, m2
as long as their ratio is equal to k1/m1 to satisfy Equation (35). We
can have a small spring k2 and a small mass m2 or k2 large and m2
large.
However, Equation (34) shows that for the same exciting force the
amplitude of the absorber mass is inversely proportional to its spring
constant. In order to have small amplitude of absorber mass m2, we
must have a large k2 and therefore large m2 which may not be
desirable from practical considerations.

Small mass m2 would be the best from practical considerations but

that is associated with small k2 and therefore large amplitude X2 of
vibration of the absorber mass. So a compromise is usually made
between the amplitude and mass ratio . The mass ratio is usually
kept between 0.05 to 0.25.
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The denominators of Equations (36) are identical. At a value of 
when these denominators are zero, the two masses have infinite
amplitudes of vibration. The expression for the denominators is a
quadratic in 2, and therefore there are two values of  for which
these expressions vanish.

These two frequencies are the resonant frequencies or the natural

frequencies of the system. When the excitation frequency equals any
of the natural frequencies of the system, all the points in the system
have infinite amplitudes of vibration, or the system is in resonance.

To find the two resonant frequencies of the systems when 11 = 22,
we equate denominator of either of Equations (36) to zero,

………. (37)

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Solving for (/22) we have

………. (38)

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Example 7.1
Determine the two natural frequencies and the modes of
vibration of the system shown in Figure E7.1. Given k1 =
k3 = k; k2 = 2k and m1 = m2 = m.
If determine the
response of the system.

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Example 7.2
Determine the two natural frequencies and the modes of vibration of
the system shown in Figure E7.2. The two equal masses are under
tension T, which is large.

Example 7.3
In the system shown in Figure E7.3, the mass m1 is excited by a
harmonic force having a maximum value of 50 N and a frequency of
2 Hz. Find the forced amplitude of each mass for m1 = 10 kg, m2 = 5
kg, k1 = 8000 N/m, and k2 = 2000 N/m.

9.7728 mm, 16.1476 mm

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Example 7.4
A torsional system has an inertia of 1.5kgm2 and a torsional stiffness of
4360Nm/rad. It is acted upon by a torsional excitation of 54rad/sec.
Determine the parameter of the absorber to be fixed to the main system
if it is desired to keep the natural frequency at least 20% away from the
impressed frequency.

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