LAB 1: DAMPED FREE VIBRATION
BASIC OVERVIEW
Lab Instructions
(i) Students must don personal protective equipment while accessing the laboratories
(ii) Requirements are such as closed footwear and long or short sleeve shirts.
Damped Free Vibration
The free vibration response of a system is useful in determining the resonance frequency
of a system and other characteristics of the system such as the damping constant. A free vibration
response is readily obtained from a vibrating system where the spring, mass, and damper
characteristics may be possibly unknown. The free vibration is present in both linear and
rotational vibrating systems and both use the same concepts. The lab experiment uses rotational
theory. An undamped system will undergo free vibration once vibration is initiated. A typical
undamped free vibration response for a linear system (Bhattacharya, n.d.). The frequency of
vibration will be equal to the natural frequency of the system and can be determined from the
period of oscillation.
For a rotational system, the theoretical natural frequency can also be
determined by knowing the spring rate and the mass moment of inertia, as
shown below,

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