Industrial Application of Undamped Mass Spring SystemThe most popular application of an undamped spring mass system is to study the torsional vibration of a crankshaft of internal combustion engines because if the vibration is too much it could break the crankshaft itself. The frequency of the vibration must match the torsional resonant frequency of the crankshaft so that the flywheel is not shear-off or cause the driven belts, gears and attached components to fail because torsional vibration is not controlled in a crankshaft. This potentially damaging vibration is often controlled by a torsional damper that is located at the front nose of the crankshaftNext application for undamped mass spring system is the intriguing problem of chimney collapse. The collapse happened because designers did not consider effect of vibration or the resonance of chimney and when wind blows across chimney during a particular wind speed range a phenomenon called Vortex shedding happens behind the chimney. At resonance amplitude of oscillation becomes so large that structure finally collapses. The solution to this phenomenon is to install ring at the top of the chimney as a vortex breaker, which will distract the flow and spoil vortex formation behind chimney.

Figure 1 : Vortex breaker on a chimney

Lastly, the application of undamped mass spring system is used in wide span structures such as bridges, spectator stands, large stairs, and stadium roofs as well as slender tall structures such as high rises. They tend to be easily excited to high vibration amplitudes in one of their basic mode shapes, for example by wind or marching and jumping people. Low natural frequencies are typical for this type of structures, due to their dimensions, as is their low damping. With Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD), these vibrations can be reduced very effectively.

Figure 2 : Tuned Mass Damper on a bridge