Dimensionless form of the ODE for a simple pendulum with forcing and damping

mathematical physicsnonlinear dynamicsordinary differential equationsphysics

I'm tasked with analysing the behaviour of a simple pendulum with driving and damping, which has the equation of motion:

$$mL^{2}\ddot{\theta} + k\dot{\theta} + mgL\sin{\theta} = FL\cos{\Omega}t$$

For convenience I measure time relative to the natural period of small amplitude oscillations i.e. $t = \sqrt{\frac{L}{g}}\tau$. To investigate beats between the natural and forcing periods I define the driving frequency $\Omega = (1 – \nu)\sqrt{\frac{g}{L}}$ where $\nu<<1$. After making these substitutions I differentiate, and end up with a form containing the 3 parameters $\frac{k\sqrt{g}}{mL\sqrt{L}}$, $\frac{F}{mgL}$ and $\nu$. However, according to my lecturer, the dimensionless form should contain the 3 parameters $\frac{k}{mL\sqrt{gL}}$, $\frac{F}{mg}$ and $\nu$.

Can someone help? What mistakes have I made?

Best Answer

First off, determine how many independent dimensionless quantities there are. You have three independent dimensions and eight quantities (six parameters, time, and the angle), so you have five independent dimensionless quantities.

Naturally one of them is just $\theta$.

Since you have some natural frequencies of oscillation, it makes sense to have another dimensionless quantity be either $\omega t$ (with $\omega$ the natural frequency of the unforced, undamped linear pendulum) or $\Omega t$. You seem to have chosen it to be $\omega t$.

It is also natural to have a dimensionless parameter be a nondimensionalized version of $\omega-\Omega$ because you are specifically interested in beating. You wrote this as $\frac{\omega-\Omega}{\omega}$. This makes sense.

Now we need two more. The setup you're going for here compares the external forcing to the gravitational forcing, and the damping to the gravitational forcing. This is a choice, although it is a pretty reasonable one.

But you need the right units for $k$. The way you wrote it, the units for $k$ are $M L^2 T^{-1}$. This is a slightly weird convention (different from the convention for the damping coefficient in the usual spring-mass system with linear damping). But it doesn't hurt anything as long as you're aware of it.

Anyway, since the only source of a time that you're "allowed" to use in this term is $g$, you divide by $\sqrt{g}$ to cancel $T^{-1}$ and are now looking at $\frac{k}{\sqrt{g}}$, which has $ML^{3/2}$ units. Then you cancel what's left over with the simplest thing that has $ML^{3/2}$ units available which is $m L^{3/2}$.

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