Viscous Dampening Spring-Mass System

by Wesley Homenda

Submitted : Spring 2010

For the viscous spring dampening system, the idea was to analyze the system under varying viscous dampening coefficients. The approach to achieve this required using first order Euler methods coupled with relevant equations from the system. By running all of the related equations as a system of equations in Microsoft EXCEL and creating graphs for the data, there was a visible difference in the viscous system from the varying dampening coefficients. What was concluded from analyzing the systems for 10 seconds at .0005-second intervals was that as the dampening coefficient increased from 0 to 20, the system showed substantial slowing, with greater slowing the higher the dampening coefficient. What this slowing involved is a decrease in both amplitude and velocity of the system as time went on, bringing the system closer to the equilibrium point.

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