2 - Cycles

32.46 ms
F=1/T = 1/(73-40) = 1/33 = 30.3 Hz

Log Decrement (Amplitude)  = 1/n ln (X0/Xn) = ½ ln (8/2) =0.6931

Damping Ratio or Damping coefficient;  = C/Cc = /2 = 0.6931/2 = 0.1103 = 11.03 %

%Cr; Percent of critical damping = 100% x  = 100 % x 0.1103 = 11.03 %

Amplification Factor; Q = 1/2 = 4.53

0
Fd = driving or forcing frequency = 120f/P = 120*60/4 = 1800 rpm

Damping Factor ; or Critical damping ratio= C/Cc

C = Viscous damping coefficient

Cc = Critical damping coefficient; smallest amount of damping required to return the system to its rest
position without oscillation.

Note: Cc depends on the mass and stiffness of the system whereas C depends on the dash pot design.
In either case, the principle of isolation is the same. The isolator, being a resilient element, stores the
incoming energy at a time interval which affords a reduction of the disturbance to the equipment or
support structure. The purpose of this Design Guide is to aid the design engineer in selecting the proper
isolator to reduce the amount of vibration and/or shock that is transmitted to or from equipment.

Before a selection of a vibration and/or shock isolator can be made, the engineer should have a basic
understanding of the following definitions, symbols, and terms:

Vibration: A magnitude (force, displacement, or acceleration) which oscillates about some specified
reference where the magnitude of the force, displacement, or acceleration is alternately smaller and
greater than the reference. Vibration is commonly expressed in terms of frequency (cycles per second or
Hz) and amplitude, which is the magnitude of the force, displacement, or acceleration. The relationship of
these terms is illustrated in Figure 3.
Damping: The majority of isolators possess damping in varying degrees. A convenient reference
illustrating damping factor C/Cc for various materials is shown in Table 1. Damping is advantageous when
the mounted system is operating at or near its natural frequency because it helps to reduce
transmissibility. For example, consider an internal combustion engine mounted on steel springs which
possess very little damping (see Table 1). Upon start up of the engine and as the engine RPM increases,
the disturbing frequency of the engine will at some point correspond with the natural frequency of the
spring-mass system. With light damping the buildup of forces from the engine to the support will be very
large; that is, transmissibility will be very high. If the idle RPM of the engine falls in the range of the
natural frequency of the spring-mass system, serious damage may result to the engine or to the support
chassis. If, on the other hand, the designer selects an elastomeric isolator which possesses a higher
degree of damping, amplification at resonance would be much less.

Horizontal Vibration: When an isolation system is excited horizontally, two natural frequencies result if
the center of gravity of the unit is not in line with the elastic center of the isolators. A typical
transmissibility curve illustrating this horizontal vibration output is illustrated in Figure 9. The two natural
frequencies which are involved include a lower mode wherein the equipment rocks about a point well
below the elastic center of the isolators and a higher mode where the equipment oscillates about a point in
the vicinity of the center of gravity. Two other natural frequencies will occur if the equipment is rotated 90
degrees in the horizontal plane with respect to the exciting force.
 To select the proper Vibro-Insulator® for a specific application, it is necessary to know the following information:
1. The maximum load that must be supported.
2. The number of mounts supporting the load.
3. The frequency of the disturbing vibration. (Note: If there is more than one frequency involved, the lowest
frequency is the determinilng one.)
Spring Rate
Spring rate is defined as the amount of force required to deflect a spring 1 inch. Graphically, spring rate is
equal to the slope of the load/deflection curve at the corresponding load. A steel coil spring has a constant
spring rate as shown by the straight line on the load/deflection chart below. The slope of a Marsh
Mellow spring curve changes with height. This results in a changing spring rate. These characteristics are
illustrated below:
Spring Rate = Force/Deflection = Slope of the Load/Deflection Curve

Load/Deflection Curves

Effective Deflection
Because the slope of the Marsh Mellow spring
load/deflection curve changes, the spring rate must
be expressed in terms of effective deflection and load.
Effective deflection is the difference between actual
deflection and the x intercept of the tangent line to the
load curve at the design load. Effective deflection is also
equal to the given load divided by the slope of the load
curve at that point.

Effective Deflection (in) = Load (lbs)/ Spring Rate (lbs / in)

Since the spring rate of a coil spring is constant, the effective deflection is equivalent to the actual
deflection. A Marsh Mellow spring’s spring rate increases as the load increases, therefore the
effective deflection is almost constant. This results in a consistent isolator with changing loads.
Critical damping provides the quickest approach to zero amplitude for a damped
oscillator. With less damping (underdamping) it reaches the zero position more quickly,
but oscillates around it. With more damping (overdamping), the approach to zero is
slower. Critical damping occurs when the damping coefficient is equal to the undamped
resonant frequency of the oscillator.

Overdamping of a damped oscillator will cause it to approach zero amplitude more slowly than for the case
of critical damping. The damping coefficient is greater than the undamped resonant frequency.

Critical Damping
Critical damping is the minimum amount of damping which will prevent a resonant
structure from oscillating. The frequency response function of a critically damped system
will show no peak at the natural frequency. It is common to express the degree of
damping of a system as a percent of critical damping.

What is a Frequency Response Function (FRF)?

A Frequency Response Function (or FRF), in experimental modal analysis:

 is a frequency based measurement function

 used to identify the resonant frequencies, damping and mode shapes of a physical
structure
 sometimes referred to a “transfer function” between the input and output
 expresses the frequency domain relationship between an input (x) and output (y) of a
linear, time-invariant system

Bode Plot of Amplitude and Phase of a FRF function. Amplitude has peaks corresponding to natural
frequencies/resonances of test object. Phase has shift at resonant frequency.

In a Frequency Response Function measurement the following can be observed:

 Resonances - Peaks indicate the presence of the natural frequencies of the structure
under test
 Damping - Damping is proportional to the width of the peaks. The wider the peak, the
heavier the damping
 Mode Shape – The amplitude and phase of multiple FRFs acquired to a common
reference on a structure are used to determine the mode shape

In Experimental Modal Analysis

Many types of input excitations and response outputs can be used to calculate an
experimental FRF. Some examples:

 Mechanical Systems: Inputs in force (Newtons) and outputs in Acceleration (g's),

Velocity (m/s) or Displacement (meter)
 Acoustical Systems: Inputs in Q (Volume Acceleration) and outputs in Sound
Pressure (Pascals)
 Combined Acoustic and Mechanical systems: Inputs in force (either Q or Newtons)
and ouputs in Sound Pressure (Pa), Acceleration (g's), etc
 Rotational Mechanical Systems: Inputs in Torque (Nm) and output in Rotational
Displacement (degrees)

For a experimental modal analysis on a mechanical structure, typically the input is force
and output is acceleration, velocity or displacement.

Forces can be applied and measured via:

 Impact Hammers
 Electrodynamic Shakers

Responses can be measured by:

 Accelerometers: measure acceleration vibration

 Lasers: measure surface velocity
 String Pots, Photogrammetry: displacement

Generally, the input force spectrum (X) should be flat versus frequency, exciting all
frequencies uniformly. When viewing the response (Y), the peaks in the response indicate
the natural/resonant frequencies of the structure under test.
Because the FRF response is "normalized" to the input , the peaks in the resulting FRF function are
resonant frequencies of the test object.

Imaginary FRFs and Mode Shapes

A FRF is a complex function which contains both an amplitude (the ratio of the input force
to the response, for example: g/N) and phase (expressed in degrees, which indicates
whether the response moves in and out of phase with the input).

Any function that has amplitude and phase can also be transformed to real and imaginary
terms, as described the equation below:

After transforming the FRF from Amplitude & Phase to Real & Imaginary, some interesting
things happen:

 The real part of the FRF will equal zero at natural/resonant frequencies
 The imaginary will have “peaks” either above or below zero which indicate resonant
frequencies. The direction of the peaks can be used to determine the mode shape
associated with the natural/resonant frequency

Left: FRF expressed in Amplitude and Phase, Right: FRF expressed in Real and Imaginary

If several FRFs are acquired at different locations on the structure, and they are all phased
with respect to a common reference, the imaginary part of the FRFs can be used to plot the
mode shape.

In the example below, six FRF measurements were taken on a simple metal plate hung in
free-free boundary conditions. The six FRFs are located as follows:
  Measurement points 1 and 3 are on one end of plate
 Measurement points 7 and 9 are in the center
 Measurement points 13 and 15 are on the other end, opposite points 1 and 3

Plot of the imaginary portion of six FRFs on simple plate

When plotting the imaginary portion of the FRF, and looking at 532 Hz:

 Measurement points 1 and 13 move in phase, and are opposite corners of the plate
(red and cyan)
 Measurement points 7 and 9 have low amplitude (blue and magenta)
 Measurement points 3 and 15 are in phase on opposite corners of the plate (brown
and green)

When plotting the imaginary values at 532 Hz on a stick figure model of the plate, it can be
seen that the plate is in torsion.

Who knew that viewing “imaginary” FRFs could be so useful?!

Coherence

Coherence is function versus frequency that indicates how much of the output is due to the
input in the FRF. It can be indicator of the quality of the FRF. It evaluates the consistency
of the FRF from measurement to repeat of the same measurement.

The value of a coherence function ranges between 0 and 1:

 A value of 1 at a particular frequency indicates that the FRF amplitude and phase
are very repeatable from measurement to measurement.
 A value of 0 indicates that opposite – the measurements are not repeatable, which is
a possible “warning flag” that there is an error in the measurement setup.

Green: Coherence, Red: FRF

When the amplitude of a FRF is very high, for example at a resonant frequency, the
coherence will have a value close to 1.

When the amplitude of the FRF is very low, for example at an anti-resonance, the
coherence will have a value closer to 0. This is because the signals are so low, their
repeatability is made inconsistent by the noise floor of the instrumentation. This is
acceptable/normal. When the coherence is closer to 0 than 1 at a resonant frequency, or
across the entire frequency range, this indicates a problem with the measurement.
Problems could include:

 Instrumentation error – For example, ICP power is not being supplied to transducer
that requires ICP power
  Inconsistent excitation – Structure is not being hit by an impact hammer consistent
(for example, operator is tired and striking structure at different angles between
impacts)
 Insufficient force – The structure is not being excited. For example, a very small
hammer (example: size of pencil) on a large object (example: size of a bridge) with a
large distance between excitation and response measurement

Note that if only one measurement is performed, the coherence will be a value of 1! The
value will be one across the entire frequency range – giving the appearance of a “perfect”
measurement. This is because at least two FRF measurements need to be take and
compared to start to calculate a meaningful coherence function. Don’t be fooled!

How to calculate damping from a FRF?

A classical method of determining the damping at a resonance in a Frequency Response
Function (FRF) is to use the “3 dB method” (also called “half power method”).

Bode plot of FRF Amplitude (Top) and Phase (Bottom). The damping values "Q" and ""Damping Ratio" are shown for
three different peaks in the FRF.

In a FRF, the damping is proportional to the width of the resonant peak about the peak’s
center frequency. By looking at the 3 dB down from the peak level, one can determine the
associated damping.
The “quality factor” (also known as “damping factor”) or “Q” is found by the equation Q =
f0/(f2-f1), where:

 f0 = frequency of resonant peak in Hertz

 f2 = frequency value, in Hertz, 3 dB down from peak value, higher than f0
 f1 = frequency value, in Hertz, 3 dB down from peak value, lower than f0

What is damping?

Damping is the energy dissipation properties of a material or system under cyclic stress.

Acceleration versus time of a damped vs undamped system response due to a load

If a mechanical system had no damping, once set in motion, it would remain in motion
forever. Damping causes the system to gradually stop moving over time. The more
damping present in a mechanical system, the shorter the time to stop moving.
Forms of Damping
Damping can be expressed in several different forms, including “loss factor”, “damping
factor”, “percent critical damping”, “quality factor”, etc. Note that if the value of one of these
damping forms is known, the other forms can be mathematically derived. It is just a matter
of using the equations to transform the value to a different form.

For the purposes of this article, we will consider the “damping factor”, “quality factor” and
“Q” to be the same as described below:

Why have different ways of expressing damping? Mostly, this is to make it easier to discuss
differences in damping.

For example, perhaps two materials were tested, and the “percent critical damping” was
0.0123% in one case, and 0.0032% in the other case, which sounds like a small
difference. In terms of “quality factor” or “damping factor”, the difference is 4065 versus
15625, which sounds much bigger!

Instead of using long numbers with small decimal differences like percent critical damping,
changing to the “quality factor” form makes the differences easier to understand.
More vs Less Damping

As the peaks in a FRF get wider relative to the peak, the damping increases (i.e., “more”
damping). This means that any vibration set in motion in the structure would
decay faster due to the increased damping.
Comparison of function with Q=2 (Red) versus Q=10 (Green). Red would be considered to have more damping than
green.
Depending on the form being used to express damping, the value may be higher or lower.
For example, the “quality factor” or “damping factor” will decrease with more damping, while
“loss factor” and “percent critical damping” would increase with more damping.
Cautions

When calculating damping from a FRF, there are several items which can influence the final
results:

Caution #1: Frequency Resolution

When using a digital FRF, the data curve is not continuous. It is broken into discrete data
points at a fixed frequency interval or resolution. For example, this could be a 1.0 Hz
spacing versus a 0.5 Hz spacing between data points. This will influence how the
frequency values f0, f1 and f2 are determined.

Bode plot of the same system response acquired with four different frequency resolutions: 0.25 (Red), 0.5 (Green), 1.0
(Blue), 2.0 (Magenta) Hz. Change in Q value, Damping Ratio and Loss Factor also shown

WHAT IS DAMPING?
Damping in mechanical systems is the extraction of mechanical energy from the motion in the system, usually by
conversion of potential energy into heat. Therefore it can be regarded as a loss of energy. However, the positive effect of
damping is that it attenuates oscillations due to internal resonances. Damping is often modeled as a dissipation force
proportional to the velocity, F=dX, which is known as viscous damping. However the underlying principle is more
complex and nonlinear in nature.