Free and Forced Response of an Axially Moving String Transporting a Damped Linear Oscillator
Abstract The transverse response of a cable transport system, which is modelled as an ideal, constant tension string travelling at constant speed between two supports with a damped linear oscillator attached to it, is predicted for arbitrary initial conditions, external forces and boundary excitations. The exact formulation of the coupled system reduces to a single integral equation of Volterra type governing the interaction force between the string and the payload oscillator. The time history of the interaction force is discontinuous for non-vanishing damping of the oscillator. These discontinuities occur at the instants when transverse waves propagating along the string interact with the oscillator. The discontinuities are treated using the theory of distributions. Numerical algorithms for computing the integrals involving generalized functions and for solution of the delay-integral-differential equation are developed. Response analysis shows a discontinuous velocity history of the payload attachment point. Special conditions leading to absence of the discontinuities above are given.