Vibrations of Coupled Mass Points As the first and most simple system of vibrating mass points, we consider the free vibration ‘two walls by springs uf equal spring constant, as is shown in the Figure 7.1 ‘The two mass points shall have equal masses. The displacements from the rest positions are denoted by xy and x2, respectively. We consider only vibrations along the line connecting ass points, When displacing the mass 1 from the rest position, there acts the fore —kry by the spring fixed to the wall, and the force +k(x2 ~ x1) hy the spring connecting the two mass points. Thus, the mass point 1 obeys the equation of motion mi) = kay + ky — 11) (7.10) Analogously, for the mass point 2 we have mi = —kxy — kx — a1). (7.16) OOOO Figure 7.1. Mass points coupled by springs.84 VIBRATIONS OF COUPLED MASS POINTS 7 We first determine the possible frequencies of common vibration of the two particles. The “frequencies that are equal for all particles are called eigenfrequencies. The related vibra- tional states are called eigen- or normal vibrations. These definitions are correspondingly ‘generalized for a N-particle system. We use the ansate x1 = A) cost, Xp = Az. Cost, (7.2) i.e, both particles shall vibrate with the same frequency «. The specific type of the ansatz, be ita sine or cosine function or a superposition of both, is not essential. We would always get the same condition for the frequency, as can be seen from the following calculation, Insertion of the ansatz into the equations of motion yields two linear homogeneous equations for the amplitudes: A\( ma? + 2k) — Ark = 0, Ak + Ag(—ma? + 2k) = (73) ‘The system of equations has nontrivial solutions for the amplitudes only if the determinant of coefficients D vanishes: D ( w2. Figure 7.2. example to the vibrations along the x-axis, the two coordinates x, and x are sufficient to describe the system, and we obtain the two eigenvibrations with the frequencies «, «2. In our example, the normal vibrations mean in-phase or opposite-phase (= in-phase with Uifferent sign of the amplitudes) oscillations of the mass points. ‘The amplitudes of equal size are related to the equality of masses (m = mz).’The general motion of the mass points corresponds to a superposition of the normal modes with different phase and amplinde ‘The differential equations (7.1a),(7.1b) ate linear. The general form of the vibration is therefore the superposition of the normal modes. It reads, XD) = Cy cos(wit +1) + C2 costont + v2), 22(0) = —C) cos(ooyt + 91) + C2 cos(wn + $2). Here, we already utilized the result that x1 and x> have opposite-equal amplitudes for a pure «-vibration, and equal amplitudes for pure «vibrations. This ensures that the special cases of the pure normal vibrations with Cy = 0, C, #0 and C, =0, Cy # O are included in the ansatz (7.4). Equation (7.4) is the most general ansatz since it involves 4 free constants. Thus one can incorporate any initial values for x, (0), x2(0), (0), 2(0). For example, the initial conditions are 40) =0, x20) =a, (0) = £20) To determine the 4 free constants Cy, C2, y1, 2, We insert the initial conditions into the equations (7.4) and their derivatives 210) = C1008 9, + Cocos 92 = 0, (75) 22(0) = =C) 008 91 + C2008 92 = a, (76) 410) = —Cya sing, ~ Cye2 singe = 0, a 4200) = Ca sing, ~ Cye2 sin gy = 0. (78) Addition of (7.7) and (7.8) yields