Vibration of Heavy String Tethered to Mass–Spring System

This paper is concerned with the vibration of a heavy string tethered to a mass–spring system which is a model for tower crane or gantry crane. The governing equation of motion of the aforementioned problem is solved analytically and exact closed-form characteristic solutions for the natural frequencies are presented. These exact solutions would serve as benchmarks for models which may be more complex than the basic vibration problem considered. Moreover, we investigate the effect of the string-mass pendulum as a flexible dynamic vibration absorber. Such a problem is important in vibration control, and is investigated analytically for the first time. It is found that the effect of the bottom mass is to decrease the amplitude of the string in general. The effect of increased forcing frequency increases the number of nodal points on the string. In most cases, the amplitude of the top mass is reduced.