I. INTRODUCTION
A. General Introduction
The course Machine Dynamics and Control at the University of Arkansas deals with
undamped, damped, forced and unforced mass spring systems. The energy equation is the basis
from where all the total response equations and integrated constants are derived from. The
undamped and damped systems have a strong differentiation in their oscillation that can be better
understood by looking at their graphs side by side. There are three different types of damped
systems: underdamped, overdamped and critically damped. Each of these three types has their
own properties that makes them applicable in different situations. The forced and unforced
systems also differ from each other in that a forced system is excited by a force applied to it and
in this case only the sine and cosine forcing functions are going to be explained. The total
response for each system is graphed versus time to view the oscillation of the base. All of this
information can be applied to real world situations like the damping of a car, which is why its
important for students to really understand it.
B. Research Problem
Students have a hard time understanding the differences between the systems named above.
The biggest problem they face is depicting the difference between an undamped and damped
system. The GUI code in this project will enable students to input values from different textbook
problems and have a visual of what the graph for the oscillation looks like. This can serve as a
visualization tool for the problem and also as a way to check if the problem they are solving is
correct. Another problem faced when solving the mass spring system is that every time a
different type of problem wants to be solved (forced, unforced, damped or undamped) a new set
of code needs to be created because each system has its own total response equation. With the
code developed below none of this has to be done; only the right input values have to be inserted
and the program will do the rest.
II. NOMENCLATURE
m Mass of object
c Damping coefficient
k Spring constant
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