
When the damping is absent, D
2
( j) given by the last of Eqs. (8.102) reduces
to the characteristic equation, Eq. (7.45), when the spring k
3
is absent.
The magnitudes of the frequency-response functions are given by
(8.103)
and the associated phase responses are given by
(8.104)
Notice that H
il
is a nondimensional quantity.
As discussed in Section 5.3 for a single degree-of-freedom system and in
Section 8.2.3 for a two degree-of-freedom system, frequency-response func-
tions can also be constructed from responses to harmonic excitations. This
can be used to interpret Eqs. (8.103) and (8.104) in the following manner. Let
us suppose that a harmonic excitation of the following form acts on the sys-
tem shown in Figure 8.8:
(8.105)
Then, H
11
() and H
21
() represent the amplitude-response functions of the in-
ertia elements m
1
and m
2
, respectively. These amplitude-response functions are
functions of the excitation frequency v or, in the nondimensional form, the fre-
quency ratio . The associated phase-response functions of the inertia ele-
ments m
1
and m
2
are given by w
11
() and w
21
(), respectively. Similarly, the
amplitude-response functions H
12
() and H
22
() provide the amplitudes of the
responses of the inertia elements m
1
and m
2
, respectively, when a harmonic ex-
citation of the following form is imposed on the system shown in Figure 8.8.
(8.106)
The associated phase-response functions of the inertia elements m
1
and m
2
are
given by w
12
() and w
22
(), respectively.
In Figure 8.12, for the case where k
3
c
3
0, the nondimensional
amplitude-response functions H
ij
() are plotted as a function of the excitation
frequency ratio and the system frequency ratio v
r
. These plots are graphs
of the functions given by Eqs. (8.103). Since the system is damped, the am-
plitude responses of the inertia elements m
1
and m
2
have finite values for all
values of the excitation frequency. For “small” values of v
r
, it is seen that the
response of one of the inertia elements is pronounced at and close to the lower
resonance, while the response of the other inertia element is pronounced at
and close to the higher resonance. As the excitation-frequency ratio is in-
creased past the higher resonance value, the responses of both inertia ele-
ments are relatively uniform, as was the case for responses of damped single
degree-of-freedom systems forced by harmonic excitations.
In Figure 8.13, the amplitude responses are shown along with the
associated phase responses. These responses have been generated by using
f
2
1t 2 F
o
cos 1vt 2
or
f
2
1t 2 F
o
cos 1t 2
f
1
1t 2 0
f
2
1t 2 0
f
1
1t 2 F
o
cos 1vt 2
or
f
1
1t 2 F
o
cos 1t 2
w
il
1 2 tan
1
Im3G
il
1j24
Re3G
il
1j24
H
il
1 2 k
1
0G
il
1j20
i, l 1, 2
484 CHAPTER 8 Multiple Degree-of-Freedom Systems