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Damped Harmonic Motion

Damping

 

ð Damping is any effect that tends to reduce the amplitude of oscillations in an oscillatory system

         It is the process of energy loss

 

ð The amplitude of any real oscillating system will slowly decrease over time and eventually stop due to

        Ø air resistance

        Ø internal friction

 

ð This is referred to as damped harmonic motion

 

ð The decrease in amplitude is shown by the dotted lines

 

ð But, if the damping is not large we can treat them as SHM - a much simpler problem

 

 

Non SHM

 

ð There are 3 situations in which the motion no longer resenbles SHM

 

        Ø Under damped: System makes several swings before coming to rest - curve A

               More heavily damped version of the above figure

 

        Ø Critically damped: System reaches equilibrium in shortest time - curve B

               Door closing sytems and car shocks when new - deteriorate to under damped as they age

               A gun is another example - return to firing position in shortest amount of time after firing

 

        Ø Over damped: Damping is so large it takes a long time to reach equilibrium - curve C

 

 

Overdamped Systems

 

 

T is the period (previous discussion): the time required to complete one cycle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underdamped Spring-Mass System

How would it behave if it were
 
     Overdamped?

     Critically Damped?