Problems and Solutions Section 1.5 (1.82 through 1.

93)

1.82 A bar of negligible mass fixed with a tip mass forms part of a machine used to
punch holes in a sheet of metal as it passes past the fixture as illustrated in Figure
P1.82. The impact to the mass and bar fixture causes the bar to vibrate and the
speed of the process demands that frequency of vibration not interfere with the
process. The static design yields a mass of 60 kg and that the bar be made of steel
of length 0.30 m with a cross sectional area of 0.02 m2. Compute the system’s
natural frequency.

Solution: From equation (1.63)

This is equivalent to 2000 Hz. This frequency is very high and might result in
noise.

1.83 Consider the punch fixture of Figure P1.82. If the system is giving an initial
velocity of 8 m/s, what is the maximum displacement of the mass at the tip if the
mass is 1200 kg and the bar is made of steel of length 0.40 m with a cross
sectional area of 0.012 m2?

Solution: First compute the frequency:

From equation (1.9) the maximum amplitude is

or about 0.36 mm, not much.

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1.84 Consider the punch fixture of Figure P1.82. If the punch strikes the mass off
center it is possible that the steel bar may vibrate in torsion. The mass is 1200 kg
and the bar 0.20 m-long, with a square cross section of 0.12 m on a side. The mass
polar moment of inertia of the tip mass is 12 kg/m2. The polar moment of inertia
for a square bar is b4/6, where b is the length of the side of the square. Compute
both the torsion and longitudinal frequencies. Which is larger?

Solution: First compute the longitudinal frequency of the bar

rad/s

Next compute the torsional frequency of the bar (square cross section):

rad/s

In this case the torsional frequency is lower and should be considered in any
design.

1.85 A helicopter landing gear consists of a metal framework rather than the coil
spring based suspension system used in a fixed-wing aircraft. The vibration of the
frame in the vertical direction can be modeled by a spring made of a slender bar
as illustrated in Figure 1.23, where the helicopter is modeled as ground. Here l =
0.42 m, E = 20 × 1010 N/m2, and m = 120 kg. Calculate the cross-sectional area
that should be used if the natural frequency is to be f n = 520 Hz.

Solution: Given:

From equation (1.63)

and

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1.86 The frequency of oscillation of a person on a diving board can be modeled as the
transverse vibration of a beam as indicated in Figure 1.26. Let m be the mass of
the diver (m = 80 kg) and l = 1.5 m. If the diver wishes to oscillate at 4 Hz, what
value of EI should the diving board material have?

Solution: From equation (1.67),

3EI
ω n2 =
ml 3
and

Solving for EI

1.87 Consider the spring system of Figure 1.32. Let k 1 = k 5 = k 2 =80 N/m, k 3 = 40
N/m, and k 4 = 10 N/m. What is the equivalent stiffness?

Solution: Given:

From Example 1.5.4

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1.88 Springs are available in stiffness values of 10, 100, and 1000 N/m. Design a
spring system using these values only, so that a 120-kg mass is connected to
ground with frequency of about 1.5 rad/s.

Solution: Using the definition of natural frequency with m = 120 kg, and
, the equivalent stiffness must be

There can be many configurations of the springs with this equivalent stiffness.
One particular configuration is to choose two springs of 100 N/m in parallel to get
200 N/m and use 2 springs of 100 N/m in series to get 50 N/m and use 10 N/m in
parallel to get 20 N/m.

Thus using 6 springs with the following configuration gives the equivalent 270
N/m stiffness.

1.89 Calculate the natural frequency of the system in Figure 1.32(a) if k 1 = k 2 = 0.

Choose m and nonzero values of k 3 , k 4 , and k 5 so that the natural frequency is 80
Hz.

Solution: Given and from the figure 1.29

the natural frequency is

Equating the given value of frequency to the analytical value yields

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 Any values of k 3 , k 4 , k 5 , and m must satisfy this equation. The answer is not
unique. One solution is taking:

1.90* Example 1.4.4 examines the effect of the mass of a spring on the natural
frequency of a simple spring-mass system. Use the relationship derived there and
plot the natural frequency (normalized by the natural frequency, ωn , for a
massless spring) versus the percent that the spring mass is of the oscillating mass.
Determine from the plot (or by algebra) the percentage where the natural
frequency changes by 1% and therefore the situation when the mass of the spring
should not be neglected.

Solution: The solution here depends on the value of the stiffness and mass ratio
and hence the frequency. Almost any logical discussion is acceptable as long as
the solution indicates that for smaller values of m s , the approximation produces a
reasonable frequency. Here is one possible answer. For

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 From this plot, for these values of m and k, a 10 % spring mass causes less then a
1 % error in the frequency.

1.91 Calculate the natural frequency and damping ratio for the system in Figure P1.91
given the values m = 20 kg, c = 120 kg/s, k 1 = 4800 N/m, k 2 = 400 N/m and k 3 =
800 N/m. Assume that no friction acts on the rollers. Is the system overdamped,
critically damped or underdamped?

Solution: Following the procedure of Example 1.5.4, the equivalent spring

constant is:

Then using the standard formulas for frequency and damping ratio:

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 Thus the system is underdamped.

1.92 Calculate the natural frequency and damping ratio for the system in Figure P1.92.
Assume that no friction acts on the rollers. Is the system overdamped, critically
damped or underdamped?.

Figure P1.92

Solution: Again using the procedure of Example 1.5.4, the equivalent spring
constant is:

Then using the standard formulas for frequency and damping ratio:

Thus the system is underdamped, in fact very lightly damped.

1.93 A manufacturer makes a cantilevered leaf spring from steel (E = 2.1 x 1011 N/m2)
and sizes the spring so that the device has a specific frequency. Later, to save
weight, the spring is made of aluminum (E = 7.1 x 1010 N/m2). Assuming that the
mass of the spring is much smaller than that of the device the spring is attached
to, determine if the frequency increases or decreases and by how much.

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Solution: Use equation (1.67) to write the expression for the frequency twice:

rad/s

Dividing yields:

Thus the frequency is decreased by about 40% by using aluminum.

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