CARLETON UNIVERSITY

Department of Systems and Computer Engineering

SYSC 3600
Lab #5: Houdaille damper: Simulating a system using different approaches
1
For this lab, no lab report is required, but you will still be graded on the lab. To receive full marks,
you will have to demonstrate to the TA or instructor that you know and understand the material in this lab
for each of the Instructor Verication points, as provided at the end of this lab manual. Copies of the
Instructor Verication Sheet will be made available in the lab.
Please be reminded that the labs are an integral component of the course, sometimes containing learning
objects that enhance or go beyond what is covered during the lectures. Hence, questions on any examination
could also be derived from material covered in the labs.
1 Vibration reduction in rotating systems
Consider the crankshaft with pulley conguration shown in Fig. 1a. Here, a pulley with inertia J
p
at an
angular displacement of
p
(t) is attached to the end of a crankshaft driven by an engine with torque
c
(t)
at an angular displacement of
c
(t). The crankshaft isnt perfectly rigid and acts as a torsional spring with
spring constant K. A corresponding model of the system is shown in Fig. 1b.
(a) Crankshaft with pulley (b) Model of crankshaft with pulley system
Figure 1: Crankshaft with pulley system and model.
A common problem in rotating systems like the one shown in Fig. 1 is torsional oscillations (vibrations).
Reducing torsional oscillations is particularly challenging for engines operating over a wide range of speeds,
for long crankshafts or that turn larger loads, or when the input torques are not smooth
2
. To reduce these
torsional oscillations, two common types of torsional dampers are often used:
the Houdaille damper, which is a viscous torsional damper, and
the Lanchester damper, which is a Coulomb friction damper.
In this lab, we will study a simple model of the Houdaille damper, though our primary focus is to investi-
gate various approaches of simulating a simple system. The Houdaille damper will serve as a simple, but
instructive, real-world system to give the simulations a context.
The Houdaille damper is a relatively simple rework on the crankshaft with pulley model, as shown in
Fig. 2a. For the system in Fig. 2a, a damper with inertia J
d
is free to rotate within an enclosure lled with
1
This lab was prepared for SIMULINK

in MATLAB

7.10.0 (R2010a) under Windows Vista

.
2
A. A. Shabana, Theory of vibration: An introduction, 2/e, Springer, 1995
L5.1
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 2 EQUATIONS OF MOTION
(a) Houdaille damper (untuned viscous
damper)
(b) Model of Houdaille damper system
Figure 2: Houdaille damper and model.
viscous uid, having a damping coefcient of D. The fan-belt pulley has an inertia of J
p
and is attached to
the end of a crankshaft. Modeling the crankshaft as a torsional spring K, the Houdaille damper system can
be modeled as shown in Fig. 2b.
Let us now analyze the crankshaft with pulley and the Houdaille damper system but rst determine the
equations of motion in the following section.
2 Equations of motion
2.1 Regular crankshaft with pulley system
For the regular crankshaft with pulley system shown in Fig. 1, we can generate the free-body diagrams as
shown in Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b. In Fig. 3a is shown a free-body diagram for the massless point at the head
of the crankshaft before the modeled torsional spring, hence we use J
c
= 0 and only the input torque T
c
(s)
from the engine and the components from the torsional spring are included. In Fig. 3b is shown the free-
body diagram for the pulley on the end of the crankshaft. From these free-body diagrams, it is clear that the
(a) Free-body diagram for massless point at the
head of the crankshaft
(b) Free-body diagram for the pulley
Figure 3: Free-body diagrams for inertial masses J
c
(massless point at end of crankshaft) and J
p
of the
crankshaft with pulley system in Fig. 1.
L5.2
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 2 EQUATIONS OF MOTION
equations of motion for the crankshaft with pulley system shown in Fig. 1b are given as
K
c
(s) K
p
(s) = T
c
(s) (1)
K
c
(s) + (J
p
s
2
+ K)
p
(s) = 0. (2)
Equation 1 is obvious since it is simply the equation for how a torsional springs twist relates to torque.
Plugging in the values for K and J
p
gives the equations of motion as

c
(s)
p
(s) = T
c
(s) (3)

c
(s) + (10s
2
+ 1)
p
(s) = 0. (4)
2.2 Houdaille damper system
Free-body diagrams for the Houdaille damper from Fig. 2 are shown in Fig. 4. Using the parameters shown
in Fig. 4, write the equations of motion for this system.
(a) Free-body diagram for massless point at the
head of the crankshaft
(b) Free-body diagram for the pulley (c) Free-body diagram for the damper
Figure 4: Free-body diagrams for Houdaille damper from Fig. 2.
Determine the equations of motion for the Houdaille damper shown in Fig. 2 with
the given model constants.
Instructor Verication (separate page)
L5.3
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 3 SIMULATING A TRANSFER FUNCTION IN SIMULINK
3 Simulating a transfer function in SIMULINK
3.1 Regular crankshaft with pulley system
For the crankshaft with pulley rotational system, the transfer function typically of interest is
p
(s)/
c
(s),
relating crankshaft angular displacement
c
(t) to the angular displacement of the pulley
p
(t).
p
(s)/
c
(s)
is derived directly from Eq. 4 without the need for Eq. 3 as

p
(s)

c
(s)
=
1
10s
2
+ 1
. (5)
Given a transfer function, it is straightforward to simulate the system in SIMULINK. Lets simulate the
crankshaft with pulley system using the transfer function
p
(s)/
c
(s) with a step input at time t
0
. A simple
SIMULINK model to simulate this transfer function is shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 5: SIMULINK model to simulate the transfer function
p
(s)/
c
(s) of the crankshaft with pulley
system using a step input.
To get a baseline response of the crankshaft with pulley system for comparison,
implement this SIMULINK model using the following parameters:
Input step time of t
0
= 20 sec
Input step initial value of
c
(t

0
) = 0 rads
Input step nal value of
c
(t
+
0
) = /4 rads
You may notice after simulating the system that after t = 20 sec, the angular displacement of the pulley
follows a sinusoid such that the pulley continuously oscillates back and forth. Note that there is no damping
in this simple model and note that the oscillation range is two times the input step jump (i.e., 2/4 = /2).
In a real system there would be some non-ideal characteristics to the torsional spring that would cause some
dampening and the pulley would typically have an attached load.
L5.4
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 4 SIMULATION DIAGRAMS FROM INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
3.2 Houdaille damper system
Determine the transfer function
p
(s)/
c
(s) for the Houdaille damper system.
Simulate
p
(s)/
c
(s) in SIMULINK for a step input and compare to the
crankshaft with pulley simulation results. To make the comparison the same, use
the following parameters:
Input step time of t
0
= 20 sec
Input step initial value of
c
(t
0
) = 0 rads
Input step nal value of
c
(t
0
+) = /4 rads
Instructor Verication (separate page)
4 Simulation diagrams from integral equations
Simulation diagrams are another power representation for ultimately creating simulations of systems. In this
section, we explore developing simulation diagrams and their implementation in SIMULINK.
There are various approaches to developing a simulation diagram. One way is to simple take the dif-
ferential equation that describes the system and convert it into an integral form. The next subsection gives
details of how to convert an ordinary differential equation into integral form.
4.1 Converting an ordinary differential equation to integral form
Lets consider the following 3
rd
-order ordinary differential equation (ODE), where y(t) is the output and
x(t) is the input.
...
y
(t) + a
2
y(t) + a
1
y(t) + a
0
y(t) = b
2
x(t) + b
1
x(t) + b
0
x(t) (6)
To put this ODE in integral form, we need to convert all of the derivatives to integrals. In this example, lets
start by solving the ODE for the largest output derivative and grouping derivatives of the same order, that is,
...
y
(t) = b
2
x(t) a
2
y(t) + b
1
x(t) a
1
y(t) + b
0
x(t) a
0
y(t). (7)
Since this is a 3
rd
-order DE, we will need to do triple integration on both sides of the equation to give
y(t) =
_
t

b
2
x() a
2
y() + b
1
x() a
1
y() + b
0
x() a
0
y() ddd. (8)
However, this still leaves some lower order derivatives on the right-side of the equation. Rearranging further
to remove any further derivatives gives
y(t) =
_
t

_
b
2
x() a
2
y() +
_

_
b
1
x() a
1
y() +
_

_
b
0
x() a
0
y()
_
d
_
d
_
d.
(9)
The resulting equation is now in integral form and a simulation diagram can be derived.
L5.5
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 4 SIMULATION DIAGRAMS FROM INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
4.2 Crankshaft with pulley system
To develop our simulation diagram for the crankshaft with pulley system, lets start with the transfer function

p
(s)/
c
(s) from Eq. 5 and rst cross-multiply to obtain
10s
2

p
(s) +
p
(s) =
c
(s). (10)
Taking the inverse Laplace transform gives the ODE
10

p
(t) +
p
(t) =
c
(t). (11)
Since derivatives of functions are sensitive to noise, it is usually preferable to generate a simulation diagram
from an integral form of the system instead of directly from the ODE. Converting this ODE into integral
form, we rst solve for

p
(t) and group like term orders and factors to give

p
(t) =
1
10
_

c
(t)
p
(t)
_
. (12)
Grouping like factors will help minimize the number of multiplication blocks needed in the end implemen-
tation.
Next, we perform running integration according to the order of the ODE to give

p
(t) =
_
t

1
10
_

c
()
p
()
_
dd. (13)
Since no derivatives remain, no further manipulation is needed for this crankshaft and pulley system.
This intergral form for the system can now easily be implemented as a simulation diagram as shown in
Fig. 6. Using this simulation diagram in a subsystem for the parent in Fig. 7, this realization gives the same
results as when we simulated the system with the model in Fig. 5.
Figure 6: SIMULINK subsystem implementing a simulation diagram for the transfer function
p
(s)/
c
(s)
of the crankshaft with pulley system.
L5.6
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 5 ANALOGOUS CIRCUIT REALIZATION
Figure 7: SIMULINK parent model for the subsystem shown in Fig. 6 for simulating the crankshaft with
pulley system.
4.3 Houdaille damper system
Develop a simulation diagram for the Houdaille damper system using the same
parameters as in Sec. 3.2. Implement this simulation diagram in SIMULINK and
verify that the results agree with those for the transfer function implementation.
Instructor Verication (separate page)
5 Analogous circuits of mechanical systems
Given a mechanical rotational system, it is possible to develop an analogous circuit for the purpose of
simulating the behaviour of the mechanical system. We simply need to develop a circuit governed by a
differential equation in the same form as for the mechanical system.
Following the force-voltage approach for circuit analogs in Nise, SYSC 3600: Systems & Simulation,
6/e, Wiley, we have the following parameter conversions.
inertia = J inductor = M henries
viscous damper = D resistor = D ohms
spring = K capacitor =
1
K
farads
applied torque = (t) voltage source = (t)
angular velocity =

(t) mesh current =

(t)
angular displacement = (t) charge = (t)
L5.7
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 5 ANALOGOUS CIRCUIT REALIZATION
5.1 Regular crankshaft with pulley system
Figure 8: Analogous circuit for simulating crankshaft with pulley system with
c
(t) as input and
p
(t) as
output.
For the crankshaft with pulley system modeled in Fig. 1b, an electric circuit analog is given in Fig. 8.
Notice that J
c
= 0 is for the massless point at the head of the crankshaft, which means that this inductor
can be replaced with a wire. The mesh equations for this circuit are clearly
K
1
s
I
1
(s) K
1
s
I
2
(s) = T
c
(s) (14)
K
1
s
I
1
(s) +
_
J
p
s + K
1
s
_
I
2
(s) = 0 (15)
which have the same form as the equations of motion for the crankshaft with pulley system. Note that i
1
(t)
and i
2
(t) relate to the velocities

c
(t) and

p
(t), respectively.
While Fig. 8 is suitable for simulating the crankshaft with pulley system when a torque
c
(t) is the input,
challenges exist for using the angular displacement
c
(t) as the input instead. In the force-velocity analog,
angular displacement relates to charge. One way we could rearrange the circuit to simulate a set angular
displacement as the input would be to rst instantly charge the capacitor (when it is not part of Mesh 2 with
the inductor) and then attach the capacitor to Mesh 2. Fig. 9 shows an example of this conguration in the
Circuit Simulator applet developed by Paul Falstad:
http://www.falstad.com/circuit/
In Fig. 9 we have an inductor with inductance constant of J
p
= 10 H, a capacitor with capacitance
constant of 1/K = 1 F, and two loops as in Fig. 8. The primary differences in Fig. 9 versus Fig. 8 is a single
pole double throw (SPDT) switch that makes-breaks each loop for the charging/usage of the capacitor. In
this setup, the voltage source is not really torque and is set to /4 = 0.783 volts to set the charge on
the capacitor to represent a total torsional spring displacement of =
c

p
= /4 radians. A very
small resistor is also included in series so that the capacitor will charge up quickly and since Circuit
Simulator cannot handle a loop with a voltage source but no resistance. At the bottom of Fig. 9 is a
simulated trace of the voltage across the capacitor, which since voltage and charge for a capacitor are related
through
v(t) =
1
C
q(t) (16)
this simulated trace can be easily related to charge, and hence to angular displacement (t) =
c
(t)
p
(t)
in this analogous system.
p
(t) can be determined from this simulated trace by

p
(t) =
c
(t) C voltage trace = 0.785 (1) voltage trace. (17)
L5.8
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 5 ANALOGOUS CIRCUIT REALIZATION
Figure 9: Analogous circuit for simulating the crankshaft with pulley system. This conguration allows a
set
c
to be introduced as an initial charge to the capacitor.
Comparing these results to those from SIMULINK with the transfer function or simulation diagram, we see
the simulations yield the same results.
L5.9
SYSC 3600: Lab #5 7 SIMULATION THROUGH OP-AMP CIRCUIT REALIZATIONS
A few hints for using Circuit Simulator.
You can start a new model by selecting CircuitsBlank Circuit.
Under OptionsOther Options... you can set the time step size
for the circuit simulation. I used 5 milliseconds as the time step for Fig. 9.
Right-click on background to pull up a menu for selecting parts to insert.
Right-click on a component allows you to
Edit constants for the component
View a scope (plot trace) for the component (I selected this for the
capacitor)
Delete the component
Right-click on a plot allows you to select what aspects to trace.
5.2 Houdaille damper system
Develop an analogous circuit for the Houdaille damper system using the same
parameters as in Sec. 3.2. Implement this analogous circuit on the Circuit
Simulator applet and verify that it works correctly.
Instructor Verication (separate page)
6 Simulating state-space representations in SIMULINK
To be added in a future lab or a future offering of the course.
7 Simulation through op-amp circuit realizations
To be added in a future lab or a future offering of the course.
L5.10
Lab #5
SYSC 3600
Instructor Verication Sheet
Ideally, you should be able to complete this verication during the lab session. If circumstances
prevent completion, this page must be submitted to the lab instructor by the beginning of your
next lab period.
Name: Student ID:
Sec. 2.2: Give the equations of motion for the Houdaille damper system with the given model constants.
Veried: Date/Time:
Sec. 3.2: Determine the transfer function
p
(s)/
c
(s) for the Houdaille damper system. Also, simulate
this transfer function in SIMULINK and interpret the results.

p
(s)

c
(s)
=
Veried: Date/Time:
Sec. 4.3: Develop a simulation diagram for the Houdaille damper system with the parameters from Sec. 3.2.
Implement this simulation diagram in SIMULINK and verify that the results agree with those from Sec. 3.2.
Veried: Date/Time:
Sec. 5.2: Develop an analogous circuit for the Houdaille damper and show the implementation in the
Circuit Simulator applet. Verify that the results agree with the previous simulations in SIMULINK.
Veried: Date/Time: