
4.5 SINGLE DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM SYSTEMS WITH NONLINEAR ELEMENTS
4.5.1 Nonlinear Stiffness
We illustrate the effects that two different types of nonlinear springs can have
on the free response of a system when subjected to either an initial displace-
ment or initial velocity.
System with Hardening Cubic Spring
First, we consider a system that has a spring whose stiffness includes a com-
ponent that varies as the cube of the displacement. After using Eq. (2.23) for
the nonlinear spring force, the governing equation is
(4.55)
where the nondimensional time variable t v
n
t. We solve Eq. (4.55) numer-
ically,
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since it does not have an analytical solution. We assume that
a 1 cm
2
, z 0.15, and that the initial conditions are X
o
2 cm and
V
o
0. The results are shown in Figures 4.23, along with the solution for the
system with a linear spring; that is, when a 0.
We see from these results that the response of the system with the non-
linear spring is distinctly different from that with the linear spring. First, the
response of the system with the nonlinear spring does not decay exponentially
with time and second, the displacement response does not have a constant
period of damped oscillation. These differences provide one a means of dis-
tinguishing one type of nonlinear system from a linear system based on an
examination of the response to an initial displacement. In practice, the
nonuniformity of the period is easier to detect, since the dependence of fre-
quency (or period) on the amplitude of free oscillation is a characteristic of
a nonlinear system.
System with Piecewise Linear Springs
We now consider a second nonlinear system shown in Figure 4.24. In this case,
the springs are linear; however, the mass is straddled by two additional linear
elastic spring-stops that are not contacted until the mass has been displaced by
an amount d in either direction. The stiffness of the springs is proportional to
the attached spring by a constant of proportionality m (m 0). When m 0, we
have the standard linear single degree-of-freedom system, and when m 1, the
elastic spring-stops are stiffer than the spring that is permanently attached to
the mass. The governing equation describing the motion of the system is
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d
2
y
dt
2
2z
dy
dt
y mh1y2 0
d
2
x
dt
2
2z
dx
dt
x ax
3
0
168 CHAPTER 4 Single Degree-of-Freedom System
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The MATLAB function ode45 was used.
14
H. Y. Hu, “Primary Resonance of a Harmonically Forced Oscillator with a Pair of Symmetric
Set-up Elastic Stops,” J. Sound Vibration, Vol. 207, No. 3, pp. 393–401, 1997.