This is a textbook for a first course in mechanical vibrations. There are many books in this area that try to include everything, thus they have become exhaustive compendiums, overwhelming for the undergraduate. In this book, all the basic concepts in mechanical vibrations are clearly identified and presented in a concise and simple manner with illustrative and practical examples. Vibration concepts include a review of selected topics in mechanics; a description of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems in terms of equivalent mass, equivalent stiffness, and equivalent damping; a unified treatment of various forced response problems (base excitation and rotating balance); an introduction to systems thinking, highlighting the fact that SDOF analysis is a building block for multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) and continuous system analyses via modal analysis; and a simple introduction to finite element analysis to connect continuous system and MDOF analyses. There are more than sixty exercise problems, and a complete solutions manual. The use of MATLAB® software is emphasized.
