STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

Unidad 1a

Introduction
In structural analysis we developed tools to determine the internal state of stress and strain in a
structure when it is subjected to loads (where we use the term loads to mean forces, or support
motions, or temperature changes or any other disturbance that causes a response). In a static
analysis loads are assumed to vary in time at a rate that is slow enough to allow inertia and
damping resistance to be neglected. When the rate at which loads vary is not sufficiently slow,
however, inertial and damping resistance develops and we enter into the realm of a dynamic
analysis. In a dynamic analysis our objective is to find the state of stress and strain as a function
of time. Note that the existence of forces that vary with time doesnt necessarily indicate that a
dynamic analysis is needed to solve a problem. Dynamics are needed only when the loads are
such that inertia and damping forces are substantial. In this regard the natural question is what is
slow enough to be treated as static and, as we will see later in the class, the answer depends on the
reaction time of the system in question. Consider, for example, the case of a massless spring
subjected to a force P(t), as shown in the sketch,
k
P(t)
u(t)
The time history of the displacement is given by;

u(t)

P( t )
k

(1)

And we can see that this is not a dynamic problem but rather a succession of static problems
and that the foregoing is true independently of the details of the time history of P(t) since the
reaction time of the massless spring is zero. Consider now the situation where we attach a mass
at the end of the spring and subject the system to the load P(t). In this case the inertial of the
mass (unless P(t) is changing very slowly) contributes to the force in the spring and the response
is no longer given by eq.1.
k

mu

m
P(t)
u(t)

In fact, from inspection of the sketch one finds that;

ku

P(t)

u(t)

P( t ) mu
k

(2)

which shows that one can no longer solve for u directly from the load. One can, of course, write
eq.2 as

m u k u P(t )

(3)

and proceed to solve it to obtain u(t). As you can see, in the static case you face an algebraic
problem while in the dynamic case differential equations have to be solved. In this class we
examine techniques to formulate the equations of motion as well as the methods used to solve
them.

The Partial Differential Equation Formulation for Dynamic Problems

Since the movement of any material point is a function of time and the mass of a structure is
distributed the structural dynamic problem is one of partial differential equations. The essential
features of the continuous formulation can be exemplified by considering the case of a rod
subjected to an arbitrary dynamic load at x = L.

P(t)

x
L

( x, t )

A(dx)

2 u ( x, t )
t 2

( x, t )

( x, t )
dx
x

dx
Considering equilibrium of the differential element (in the horizontal direction) one gets;

2 u ( x, t )

(A dx ) A (
dx )A 0
2
x
t

(4a)

or

2u ( x, t )

0
x
t2

(4b)

The stress in eq.4b is a function of the strain and the simplest possibility is that it is related
linearly to it, in which case we can write

u ( x, t )
x

(5a)

where E is the modulus of elasticity of the rod, E. Differentiating eq.5a and replacing the result
into 4b gives

2 u ( x, t ) E 2 u ( x, t )

0
x 2
t 2

(6)

which is a second order linear partial differential equation. The boundary conditions for the
sketch considered are
u(0,t) = 0

( L, t )

P(t )
A

(7a)

(7b)

or

u (L, t ) P( t )

x
A

(7c)

The boundary condition in eq.7a is simply a statement that the rod is held at x = 0 while that in 7b
indicates that the stress at the free is specified. We do not pursue the solution of the differential
equation at this point but note that consideration of the distributed nature of the mass leads to an
equation of motion in terms of partial derivatives.
Considerable simplification is realized, however, if the problem can be simplified in such a way
that one has to deal not with partial but with ordinary differential equations. The process that is
used to approximate the dynamics so the partial differential equations become ordinary
differential equations is known as spatial discretization. In this operation we come in contact with
the notion of degree-of-freedom (DOF).
A degree of freedom is a coordinate used to specify the configuration of a physical system.
Spatial discretization turns an infinitely dimensional problem into a finite dimensional one and is
always achieved by constraining the possible deformation modes. The deformation modes can be
made finite using two different schemes:
1) by replacing the physical domain with an approximation that has a finite number of
deformation modes typically known as LUMPING, or
2) by specifying the set of deformation modes directly.