Mechanical Vibrations

(MEE 321)

SDOF Free Vibration of Cantilever Beam

Date: 05 March 2014

PERFORMED BY
NORA GUZMAN
SOLAMAN MASON
ZAK WHITMAN

AND
SUBMITTED
BY

NORA GUZMAN

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

Objective

Analyze the free vibration of a SDOF free vibration cantilever beam. To obtain the

natural frequency of the cantilever beam and the damped frequency, and accelerometer is used.

The accelerometer will help obtain the experimental results of the cantilever vibration. The

natural and damped frequency obtained experimentally will be compared to the frequencies

obtained theoretically.

Theory

A cantilever beam can be analyzed as a spring mass system with a single degree of

freedom. It is considered a single degree of freedom due to it only moving in one coordinate.

The equation for natural frequency is the following, where keq is the stiffness of the beam, and

meq is the equivalent mass of the beam.

In order to find the natural frequency and damped frequency of the beam, a measure of

stiffness is needed. The equation for the stiffness of a cantilever beam is obtained from basic

strength of materials concepts. Where E is the modulus of elasticity, I is the moment of inertia,

and L is the effective length of the cantilever beam.

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

 Usually mass is ignored and taken as being equal to zero. By ignoring mass, only

approximate solutions can be obtained. To obtain more exact results ordinary differential

equations that govern the motion of the cantilever beam can be used. This method is called

continuous system dynamics. The total mass of the beam and block where mblock is the mass of

the block and mbeam is the mass of the beam is:

No damping will be applied to the cantilever beam during free vibration, but in real world

scenarios, damping from the surroundings will be taken into considerations. The damped

frequency can be obtained from (n), the natural frequency, and the damping ratio ().

By analyzing displacement over time of a SDOF damped system, can be obtained to be

used in the equation for . In the following equation x1 is the measure of amplitude near time t1

and xn+1 is the measure of amplitude near time to tn+1 and d is the period of a damped frequency.

By algebraically manipulating the equation for we can then obtain a value for .

Now that the value for the is known it can be used to find the theoretical damping

frequency of the cantilever beam system. is expected to be less than one, which is true of

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

vicious damping. The damping and natural frequencies are expected to be about the same

because is less than one.

Equipment

Qty Device Serial #

1 Laptop 292348

1 Power Cord N/A

1 NI 9234 292390

1 NI USB-9162 292393

1 USB-B Cable N/A

1 Unidirectional Accelerometer 107440

1 Microdot to BNC Cable N/A

1 Amplifier N/A

1 BNC Cable N/A

1 Clamp N/A

1 Aluminum Beam N/A

1 Aluminum Block N/A

2 Screws N/A

1 Ruler N/A

1 Micrometer N/A

1 Scale BJ101060

1 Beeswax N/A

1 Tape N/A

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

1 Hex Driver N/A

1 Flash Drive N/A

Set-Up Procedure

1. Take mass measurements using the scale.

a. Measure the mass of the block with the screws.

b. Measure the mass of the beam.

c. Measure the mass of the accelerometer.

2. Find dimensions of the beam

a. Using the ruler measure the width of the beam.

b. Using the ruler measure the total length of the beam.

c. Using the micrometer measure the thickness of the beam.

3. Assemble the cantilever beam with the block

4. Clamp down the cantilever beam to the edge of the table.

5. Using the ruler measure the effective length of the beam.

6. Attach the accelerometer using beeswax, making sure that the arrow is pointing the

vertical direction.

7. Wire the microdot cable to the BNC cable. Wire the BNC cable to the amplifier. Set the

gain to one on the amplifier.

8. Connect the BNC cable to the NI 9234 DAQ.

9. Plug the NI USB-9162 to the computer with the USB-B cable.

10. Open Lab view on computer.

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

Experimental Procedure

1. In LabView Open a Blank VI and save as Lab 2.

2. Create a time domain graph, and a frequency domain graph.

3. Connect output from the DAQ assistant into the time domain graph.

4. Select a spectral measurement and connect that output to the frequency domain graph.

5. Select the appropriate channel in the DAQ assistant properties.

6. In the DAQ assistant properties set enough samples for 10 seconds.

7. Pull the beam, wait a second or two and press run in labview to begin recording samples.

8. Analyze the spectral graph to obtain values for the natural frequency.

9. Analyze the time domain graph to obtain values for x1, t1 near the beginning of the

sample time, and x2, t2, near the end of the sample time.

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

Data

Table 1 Equipment Measurements

Description Value Unit
Mass of Masses Plus Screws 76.30 g
Mass of Beam 37.40 g
Mass of Accelerometer 04.10 g
Width of Beam 03.3 cm
Thickness of Beam .1 cm
Total Length of Beam 33.1 cm
Effective Length of Beam 33.0 cm

Table 2 Experimental Data

Trial 1 2 3 4 5
fd Hz 3.600 3.600 3.600 3.600 3.600
+/- Hz 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010
x1 V 0.047 0.550 0.225 0.210 0.540
+/- V 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005
t1 sec 1.050 0.490 1.260 1.160 1.510
+/- sec 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010 0.010
xn+1 V 0.032 0.358 0.122 0.103 0.251
+/- V 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005
tn+1 sec 9.750 9.200 9.400 9.310 9.380
+/- sec 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005
d sec 0.280 0.290 0.280 0.280 0.280

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

 Fig. 1 Block diagram

Fig 2. Front panel displaying time domain graph (left) and frequency domain graph (right).

Fig 3. Time domain and frequency domain graph modified to obtain experimental values

Calculations

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

Example calculations from Trial 1

= =31.07

= =.012

= =.0019

) ) )
= ) )
=14.24 rad/s
)

=22.61

%error= exp-theory/theory=22.61-14.23/14.23=59%

Results

The natural frequency and damped natural frequency obtained approximately the same.

The experimental damped frequency is much higher as can be seen in Table 3. This yields a

high percent error.

Table 3 Experimental and Theoretical Results

Trial n (rad/s) d (rad/s) d (rad/s) d
Experiment Theory Theory Experiment % error
1 0.0019 14.24 14.23 22.62 59%
2 0.0022 14.24 14.24 22.62 58.8%
3 0.0034 14.24 14.24 22.62 58.8%
4 0.0038 14.24 14.24 22.62 58.8%
5 0.0038 14.24 14.24 22.62 58.8
Avg 0.0030 14.24 14.24 22.62 58.84

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

Questions

1. See Data fig.1 and fig. 2

2. See Data
3. It was unnecessary to use the micrometer to measure the width or length of the beam.
This was because the micrometer is mean to measure very small, closer to one-hundredth
of a millimeter.
4. Calibration of the accelerometer was unnecessary because it directly measures
displacement of the tip of the beam.
5. The oscillation of the beam can be used to calibrate the accelerometer using the
displacement.
6. The accelerometer is able to output a wave function based on the displacement caused by
pulling on the beam. This wave output is proportional to the amplitude.
7. The beam behaves with viscous damping. The decay is gradual and <<1.
8. This accelerometer was sensitive enough to obtain data without have to apply a large
force on the beam.
9. The beeswax material worked out very well in this experiment. It remained stable enough
to not move around as testing was done, yet it was easy to adjust. We mounted the
accelerometer at the tip of the block to obtain the best displacement of the tip of the
beam.

Discussion

After comparing the theoretical values and experiments values for damped natural
frequency across all 5 trials there is a high percentage of error of about 59%. This may be due to
error in measuring dimensions of the beam causing the theoretical data to be incorrect. The use
of a ruler makes it more likely for there to be human error. Theres error in the time and
frequency graphs when observing data through each of the oscillations. The graphs have to be
estimated significantly because the placement of the waveform graphs arent exactly on the lines
indicating the time and amplitude. This experiment will need to be done again with much more
attention paid to the accuracy of measurements. Due to the nature of this experiment human error
is unavoidable but 59% is just too high.

Conclusion

The natural frequency and damped natural frequency were approximately the same. This
was and expected result of viscous damping. There was consistency throughout all 5 trials of the

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam

experiment in the values natural frequency and damped frequency. There was a large amount of
error when compare to the experimental damped frequency. This is a cause for concern as
something was either measured incorrectly or there is too great of limitations in the measuring
tools. This experiment will need to be done again to provide a better comparison on theoretical
and experimental damped frequencies.

References

1. Class Notes provided by Professor Ryu

2. https://webcourses.niu.edu/lab2handout

MEE 321 SDOF Free Vibration Cantilever Beam