Free vibration analysis of circularly curved multi-span Timoshenko beams by the pseudospectral method

Abstract

The pseudospectral method is applied to the free vibration analysis of circularly curved multi-span Timoshenko beams. Each section of the beam has its own basis functions, and the continuity conditions at the intermediate supports as well as the boundary condition are treated as the constraints of the basis functions so that the number of degrees of freedom matches the number of the pseudospectral expansion coefficients. The computed natural frequencies are compared with those of existing literature, where it is shown that they are in good agreement. Numerical examples are provided for pinned-pinned, clamped-clamped and free-pinned boundary conditions for different numbers of sections and for different thickness-to-length ratios.