
Then, from Eqs. (8.69), the transforms K
1
(s) and K
2
(s) are given by
(8.78)
Based on Eqs. (8.66) and (8.78), the displacement responses in the Laplace
domain are
(8.79)
For the special case where k
3
c
3
0 in Figure 8.8—that is k
32
c
32
0—the polynomial D
1
(s) reduces to D
2
(s) given by Eq. (8.74) and the
responses given by Eqs. (8.79) reduce to
(8.80)
To determine the time-domain responses, the inverse Laplace transforms
of the impulse response given by Eqs. (8.75) and the step response given by
Eqs. (8.80) were evaluated numerically,
9
and the results obtained are shown
in Figures 8.9 and 8.10. In each of Figures 8.9 and 8.10, the response of the
mass m
1
is graphed by using a dashed line and the response of mass m
2
is
graphed by using a solid line. The response of the second mass is more pro-
nounced compared to the response of the first mass, since the forcing is di-
rectly applied to the second mass. However, due to the coupling in the stiff-
ness and damping matrices, the mass m
1
also responds to the forcing. In the
case of the impulse excitation applied to the second mass, at the higher value
of the mass ratio m
r
, the responses of the first and second masses are charac-
terized by damped oscillations with the same period for v
r
1. In the case of
the step input, this observation is true of the transient oscillations. On exam-
ining Figure 8.10, it is seen that the settling positions of the two masses are
different for the given step input.
8.4.2 Response to Initial Conditions
We use the general solution given by Eqs. (8.66) to examine free oscillations of
the system shown in Figure 8.8 for different initial conditions. In order to iso-
late the response to initial conditions, we set the forcing f
1
(t) and f
2
(t)in
X
2
1s 2
F
o
A1s 2
k
1
m
r
sD
2
1s 2
X
1
1s 2
F
o
B1s 2
k
1
m
r
sD
2
1s 2
F
o
C1s 2
sk
1
D
2
1s 2
X
2
1s 2
F
o
A1s 2
sk
1
m
r
D
1
1s 2
X
1
1s 2
F
o
B1s 2
sk
1
m
r
D
1
1s 2
F
o
C1s 2
sk
1
D
1
1s 2
K
2
1s 2
F
o
sk
1
m
r
K
1
1s 2 0
8.4 Laplace Transform Approach 475
9
The MATLAB functions tf, step, and impulse from the Controls Toolbox were used.