Damped harmonic oscillator equation

Describes the motion of a single-degree-of-freedom mechanical oscillator that experiences linear (viscous) damping.

Conditions:

  1. Damping force is directly proportional to velocity (viscous).

  2. Motion is restricted to one spatial dimension.

Links:

  1. Physics LibreTexts – Damped Oscillations (Eq. 15.6.2)

time

time.

Symbol:

t

Latex:

\(t\)

Dimension:

time

displacement

Displacement (1-D) of the oscillating body as a function of time. See euclidean_distance.

Symbol:

x(t)

Latex:

\(x{\left(t \right)}\)

Dimension:

length

undamped_angular_frequency

Undamped angular_frequency of the oscillator.

Symbol:

w

Latex:

\(\omega\)

Dimension:

angle/time

damping_ratio

damping_ratio of the system.

Symbol:

zeta

Latex:

\(\zeta\)

Dimension:

dimensionless

definition

Derivative(x(t), (t, 2)) + 2 * zeta * w * Derivative(x(t), t) + w^2 * x(t) = 0

Latex:
\[\frac{d^{2}}{d t^{2}} x{\left(t \right)} + 2 \zeta \omega \frac{d}{d t} x{\left(t \right)} + \omega^{2} x{\left(t \right)} = 0\]