On damping properties of a frictionless physical pendulum with a moving mass

Abstract The damping effects are generated in a frictionless oscillating physical pendulum by a continuous motion of an auxiliary mass. The main parameters affecting the damping properties of the pendulum–mass system are identified. In particular, the effective damping ratio for a cycle is introduced and derived in a closed form from the energy considerations and then independently from Mathieu's equation. It is shown that a continuous damping can be achieved if the mass motion is synchronized with the pendulum rotation. Otherwise the system becomes prone to ‘beating’ phenomenon. The results presented may be useful for design of active control strategy of autonomous systems with negligible passive damping.