The vibration analysis of the elastically restrained functionally graded Timoshenko beam with arbitrary cross sections

Abstract

In this study, an investigation on the free vibration of the beam with material properties and cross section varying arbitrarily along the axis direction is studied based on the so-called Spectro-Geometric Method. The cross-section area and second moment of area of the beam are both expanded into Fourier cosine series, which are mathematically capable of representing any variable cross section. The Young’s modulus, the mass density and the shear modulus varying along the lengthwise direction of the beam, are also expanded into Fourier cosine series. The translational displacement and rotation of cross section are expressed into the Fourier series by adding some polynomial functions which are used to handle the elastic boundary conditions with more accuracy and high convergence rate. According to Hamilton’s principle, the eigenvalues and the coefficients of the Fourier series can be obtained. Some examples are presented to validate the accuracy of this method and study the influence of the parameters on the vibration of the beam. The results show that the first four natural frequencies gradually decrease as the coefficient of the radius β increases, and decreases as the gradient parameter n increases under clamped–clamped end supports. The stiffness of the functionally Timoshenko beam with arbitrary cross sections is variable compared with the uniform beam, which makes the vibration amplitude of the beam have different changes.