ECE 205

Shahla Aliakbari

Oscillations in Physical Systems

Simple harmonic oscillator: This model approximates many systems such as mechanical (e.g.
spring-mass and simple pendulum) and electrical (e.g. LC circuit) oscillators.
Spring-mass system
F kx mx kx 0 x 2 x 0 , k / m

Simple pendulum
ml mg sin

g

sin 0 sin

2 0 , g /l T 2 l /g

LC circuit
L

di q
d 2i i
/ dt
V0 idq

L 2 0 i 2i 0 , 1/(LC)
dt C
C
dt

The DE for all these examples can be written as

2 0

where is given in terms of physical quantities - it is usually called natural frequency. The
solution to this equation is:

(t ) c1 cos(t ) c2 sin(t ) A sin(t )

Damped harmonic oscillator: A more realistic physical model is one that includes dissipative
forces. For the sake of simplicity, assume that any dissipative force is directly proportional to the
velocity of the mass, in the opposite direction, then
For the spring-mass system:
mx kx x mx x kx 0 x 2Qx 2 x 0
Q /(2m) : damping parameter , k / m : natural frequency ,

Similar equations can be obtained for the pendulum or RLC circuit:

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ECE 205

Shahla Aliakbari

Pendulum : ml mg sin l ' sin

g
l

' 0

RLC : L

d 2q
dq q
d i
di i
q
di
dq / dt
Ri E (t ) i

L 2 R E (t ) or L 2 R
E (t )
dt C
dt C
C
dt
dt
dt

The general form of these damped oscillators is given by

2Q 2 0

This is a second order linear DE with constant coefficients and can be solved by the method of
characteristic equation:
m 2 2Qm 2 0 m (Q Q 2 1)

Case 1: If Q 1, there are two real roots, thus

(t ) c1e ( Q

Q 2 1 ) t

c 2 e ( Q

Q 2 1 ) t

Both terms are decaying functions; this is called over-damped (no oscillations, the dissipation term
is stronger than the elastic force).
Case 2: If Q 1, there are two repeated roots, thus
(t ) (c1 c 2 t )e Q t

In this case, it decays very fast, named critically damped (no oscillations).
Case 3: If Q 1, there are two imaginary roots, thus
(t) eQt [c1 cos( 1 Q 2 t) c 2 sin( 1 Q 2 t)] Ae Qt sin( 1 Q 2 t )

1 Q 2 , but the amplitude is decaying - it takes 1/(Q ) to go

It oscillates with the frequency
down by a factor e . This is called under-damped. We can calculate how many oscillations does it
take to go down by a factor e :

t TN A(N) AeQ (NT ) Ae2QN N

1
2 Q

ECE 205

Shahla Aliakbari

For example, if in an experiment with simple pendulum, after 10 oscillations its amplitude dropped
from 27 cm to 10 cm, then Q 0.016 . Given the length and mass, we can use this to determine
the parameter .

Forced damped oscillator: If we apply the external force, then the general form of the DE can be
written as the following inhomogeneous equation,
2Q 2 f (t)

For example, the inhomogeneous term is f F / m in spring-mass system. The complementary

solution has been found in the previous section, so we need to find a particular solution. The
general solution is then given by:
(t) c (t) p (t) (transient + steady state)

Suppose we have f (t) f0 cost . The particular solution then can be obtained by the method of
undetermined coefficients. Let p (t) c 3 sin(t) c 4 cos(t) , substituting into the DE and
rearranging the terms, we obtain:
(2c3 2Qc4 2c 3) sin(t) (2c 4 2Qc 3 2c4 ) cos(t) f0 cost
2c3 2Qc4 2c 3 0 , 2c 4 2Qc 3 2c 4 f0

From these equations, we get

c4

f0 ( 2 2 )
( 2 2 ) 2 (2Q) 2

, c3

2Q
c4
2 2

It is more appropriate to write the particular solution as p (t) A cos(t ) :

A cos(t ) A cos(t ) cos A sin(t ) sin c3 sin(t ) c 4 cos(t )

ECE 205

Shahla Aliakbari

This gives
c 3 A sin , c 4 A cos A c 3 c 4
2

, tan1 (

c3
)
c4

Using the results for c3 and c4 , we finally obtain:

A

f0
2 2

( ) (2Q)
2

, tan1 (

2Q
)
2 2

Note: When the inhomogeneous term of the second order linear DE (with constant coefficients) is
either sine or cosine function, there is a quicker way to find the particular solution based on
complex variables. We can introduce the DE:
z 2Qz 2 z f0e jt

, z x jy

The real part of this equation gives the original DE for x . Thus, we can first obtain the solution
for z , and then at the end only consider its real part. This will simplify the calculations because
we can directly try z p (t) Ae j ( t ) (convince yourself that this is not possible for the previous
case), which gives x p (t) A cos(t ) after taking the real part. Substituting z p (t) into the DE, we
obtain:

( 2 2 jQ 2 ) A f 0 e j ( 2 2 ) A f 0 cos ,2QA f 0 sin

This also gives the steady state solution:
x p (t) A cos(t ) : A

f0
2 2

( ) (2Q)
2

, tan1 (

2Q
)
2 2

Note that if we consider the limit t , the transient terms (solution to the homogenous equation)
vanish, and we only have steady state part ( A() / A(0) is called response function).
In order to sketch these results, we first consider some limiting cases (can be explain using the
pendulum example):
0:
:

f0

, 0

2
f0

, / 2 (Resonance frequency)
2Q 2
: A0 ,
f0
max 1 2Q 2 , Amax
(Q 1)
2Qw 2 1 Q 2
A

Note that when there is no damping, we have

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ECE 205

Shahla Aliakbari

Q 0:

f0

2
2

, 0

( ,

A )

For zero damping, the amplitude is negative above natural frequency (phase shift 180o).
Example: Consider a simple pendulum with the
length l and mass m . In order to apply the force to
this pendulum, we can do it indirectly by moving the
end point horizontally (see the figure). We have,
mx x mg sin , sin ( x ) / l
x 0 cos(t )
)0
mx x mg (
l
x 2Qx 2 x f 0 cos(t )

2Q

, 2

g
l

f 0 2 0

We can now demonstrate the results (experimentally) for low and high frequencies, as well as,
resonance frequency, using this simple pendulum!