# Vibrations of a circular membrane

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One of the possible modes of vibration of an idealized circular drum head (mode $u_{12}$ with the notation below). Other modes are shown at the bottom of the article.

The vibrations of an idealized circular drum head—essentially an elastic membrane of uniform thickness attached to a rigid circular frame—are solutions of the wave equation with zero boundary conditions.

There exist infinitely many ways in which a drum head can vibrate, depending on the shape of the drum head at some initial time and the rate of change of the shape of the drum head at the initial time. Using separation of variables, it is possible to find a collection of "simple" vibration modes, and it can be proved that any arbitrarily complex vibration of a drum head can be decomposed as a series of the simpler vibrations (analogous to the Fourier series).

## Motivation

Analyzing the vibrating drum head problem explains percussion instruments such as drums and timpani. However, there is also a biological application in the working of the eardrum. From an educational point of view the modes of a two-dimensional object are a convenient way to visually demonstrate the meaning of modes, nodes, antinodes and even quantum numbers. These concepts are important to the understanding of the structure of the atom.

## The problem

Consider an open disk $\Omega$ of radius $a$ centered at the origin, which will represent the "still" drum head shape. At any time $t,$ the height of the drum head shape at a point $(x, y)$ in $\Omega$ measured from the "still" drum head shape will be denoted by $u(x, y, t),$ which can take both positive and negative values. Let $\partial \Omega$ denote the boundary of $\Omega,$ that is, the circle of radius $a$ centered at the origin, which represents the rigid frame to which the drum head is attached.

The mathematical equation that governs the vibration of the drum head is the wave equation with zero boundary conditions,

$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \left(\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial x^2}+\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial y^2}\right) \text{ for }(x, y) \in \Omega \,$
$u = 0\text{ on }\partial \Omega.\,$

Due to the circular geometry of $\Omega$, it will be convenient to use cylindrical coordinates, $(r, \theta, z).$ Then, the above equations are written as

$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \left(\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial r^2}+\frac {1}{r}\frac{\partial u}{\partial r}+\frac{1}{r^2}\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial \theta^2}\right) \text{ for } 0 \le r < a, 0 \le \theta \le 2\pi\,$
$u = 0\text{ for } r=a.\,$

Here, $c$ is a positive constant, which gives the speed at which transverse vibration waves propagate in the membrane. In terms of the physical parameters, the wave speed, c, is given by

$c = \sqrt{\frac{N_{rr}^*}{\rho h}}$

where $N_{rr}^*$, is the radial membrane resultant at the membrane boundary ($r = a$), $h$, is the membrane thickness, and $\rho$ is the membrane density. If the membrane has uniform tension, the uniform tension force at a given radius, $r$ may be written

$F = rN^{r}_{rr}=rN^{r}_{\theta\theta}$

where $N^{r}_{\theta\theta} = N^{r}_{rr}$ is the membrane resultant in the azimuthal direction.

We will first study the possible modes of vibration of a circular drum head that are radially symmetric. Then, the function $u$ does not depend on the angle $\theta,$ and the wave equation simplifies to

$\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \left(\frac{\partial^2 u}{\partial r^2}+\frac {1}{r}\frac{\partial u}{\partial r}\right) .$

We will look for solutions in separated variables, $u(r, t) = R(r)T(t).$ Substituting this in the equation above and dividing both sides by $c^2R(r)T(t)$ yields

$\frac{T''(t)}{c^2T(t)} = \frac{1}{R(r)}\left(R''(r) + \frac{1}{r}R'(r)\right).$

The left-hand side of this equality does not depend on $r,$ and the right-hand side does not depend on $t,$ it follows that both sides must equal to some constant $K.$ We get separate equations for $T(t)$ and $R(r)$:

$T''(t) = Kc^2T(t) \,$
$rR''(r)+R'(r)-KrR(r)=0.\,$

The equation for $T(t)$ has solutions which exponentially grow or decay for $K>0,$ are linear or constant for $K=0,$ and are periodic for $K<0.$ Physically it is expected that a solution to the problem of a vibrating drum head will be oscillatory in time, and this leaves only the third case, $K<0,$ when $K=-\lambda^2.$ Then, $T(t)$ is a linear combination of sine and cosine functions,

$T(t)=A\cos c\lambda t + B\sin c \lambda t.\,$

Turning to the equation for $R(r),$ with the observation that $K=-\lambda^2,$ all solutions of this second-order differential equation are a linear combination of Bessel functions of order 0,

$R(r) = c_1 J_0(\lambda r)+ c_2 Y_0(\lambda r).\,$

The Bessel function $Y_0$ is unbounded for $r\to 0,$ which results in an unphysical solution to the vibrating drum head problem, so the constant $c_2$ must be null. We will also assume $c_1=1,$ as otherwise this constant can be absorbed later into the constants $A$ and $B$ coming from $T(t).$ It follows that

$R(r) = J_0(\lambda r).$

The requirement that height $u$ be zero on the boundary of the drum head results in the condition

$R(a) = J_0(\lambda a) = 0.$

The Bessel function $J_0$ has an infinite number of positive roots,

$0< \alpha_{01} < \alpha_{02} < \cdots$

We get that $\lambda a=\alpha_{0n},$ for $n=1, 2, \dots,$ so

$R(r) = J_0\left(\frac{\alpha_{0n}}{a}r\right).$

Therefore, the radially symmetric solutions $u$ of the vibrating drum head problem that can be represented in separated variables are

$u_{0n}(r, t) = \left(A\cos c\lambda_{0n} t + B\sin c\lambda_{0n} t\right)J_0\left(\lambda_{0n} r\right)\text{ for }n=1, 2, \dots, \,$

where $\lambda_{0n} = \alpha_{0n}/a.$

## The general case

The general case, when $u$ can also depend on the angle $\theta,$ is treated similarly. We assume a solution in separated variables,

$u(r, \theta, t) = R(r)\Theta(\theta)T(t).\,$

Substituting this into the wave equation and separating the variables, gives

$\frac{T''(t)}{c^2T(t)} = \frac{R''(r)}{R(r)}+\frac{R'(r)}{rR(r)} + \frac{\Theta''(\theta)}{r^2\Theta(\theta)}=K$

where $K$ is a constant. As before, from the equation for $T(t)$ it follows that $K=-\lambda^2$ with $\lambda>0$ and

$T(t)=A\cos c\lambda t + B\sin c \lambda t.\,$

From the equation

$\frac{R''(r)}{R(r)}+\frac{R'(r)}{rR(r)} + \frac{\Theta''(\theta)}{r^2\Theta(\theta)}=-\lambda^2$

we obtain, by multiplying both sides by $r^2$ and separating variables, that

$\lambda^2r^2+\frac{r^2R''(r)}{R(r)}+\frac{rR'(r)}{R(r)}=L$

and

$-\frac{\Theta''(\theta)}{\Theta(\theta)}=L,$

for some constant $L.$ Since $\Theta(\theta)$ is periodic, with period $2\pi,$ $\theta$ being an angular variable, it follows that

$\Theta(\theta)=C\cos m\theta + D \sin m\theta,\,$

where $m=0, 1, \dots$ and $C$ and $D$ are some constants. This also implies $L=m^2.$

Going back to the equation for $R(r),$ its solution is a linear combination of Bessel functions $J_m$ and $Y_m.$ With a similar argument as in the previous section, we arrive at

$R(r) = J_m(\lambda_{mn}r),\,$ $m=0, 1, \dots,$ $n=1, 2, \dots,$

where $\lambda_{mn}=\alpha_{mn}/a,$ with $\alpha_{mn}$ the $n$-th positive root of $J_m.$

We showed that all solutions in separated variables of the vibrating drum head problem are of the form

$u_{mn}(r, \theta, t) = \left(A\cos c\lambda_{mn} t + B\sin c\lambda_{mn} t\right)J_m\left(\lambda_{mn} r\right)(C\cos m\theta + D \sin m\theta)$

for $m=0, 1, \dots, n=1, 2, \dots$

## Animations of several vibration modes

A number of modes are shown below together with their quantum numbers. The analogous wave functions of the hydrogen atom are also indicated as well as the associated angular frequency $\omega=\lambda_{mn}c$.