an introduction to vibration response spectrum.pdfVIP

1AN INTRODUCTION TO THE VIBRATION RESPONSE SPECTRUM Revision C By Tom Irvine Email: tomirvine@ June 14, 2000 ________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Mechanical shock pulses are often analyzed in terms of shock response spectra, as discussed in Reference 1. The shock response spectrum assumes that the shock pulse is applied as a common base input to an array of independent single-degree-of-freedom systems. The shock response spectrum gives the peak response of each system with respect to the natural frequency. Damping is typically fixed at a constant value, such as 5%, which is equivalent to an amplification factor of Q=10. A similar tool is available for vibration. This tool is the vibration response spectrum. This function gives the root-mean-square response of each system to an acceleration base input.1 The base input is an acceleration power spectral density. The vibration response spectrum is particularly suited for random vibration inputs. Pure sinusoidal vibration, on the other hand, can be dealt with using time domain methods. The vibration response spectrum has many uses. The purpose of this tutorial is to present this function and give an example of a typical application. EQUATION OF MOTION Consider a single degree-of-freedom system where m equals mass, c equals the viscous damping coefficient, and k equals the stiffness. The absolute displacement of the mass equals x, and the base input displacement equals y. 1 A vibration response spectrum may also be given in terms of the 3σ amplitude. The 3σ value is equal to three times the root-mean-square value assuming that the mean value is zero. m k c x y 2The free-body diagram is Summation of forces in the vertical direction, F mx=∑ (1a) mx c y x k y x ( ) ( )= ? + ?