An accurate singularity-free geometrically exact beam formulation using Euler parameters

Wind-induced nonlinear oscillations of twin-box girder bridges are very sensitive to the aerodynamic shape of the deck (i.e., slot width ratio (SWR) and wind fairing shape) due to the complicated flow characteristics around the bridge deck. This paper presents a fully integrated finite element (FE) model in time domain, involving a nonlinear aerodynamic force model and a bridge FE model, to allow the investigation of nonlinear oscillation behaviors of long-span twin-box girder bridges with various SWRs and wind fairing shapes. The parameters in integrated FE model were firstly identified by using CFD simulation, and then, the proposed model was validated by conducting wind tunnel testing using sectional models and full-bridge aeroelastic models. It demonstrates that the developed integrated model has the capability of simulating the nonlinear flutter behaviors of twin-box girder bridges with various aerodynamic shapes. Furthermore, the prediction results show that the wind fairing shape has significant impact on the degree of freedom participation in coupled oscillation and failure modes, as well as flutter performance of the bridges. In addition, there is an increase in amplitudes of the limit cycle oscillations with the increase in the SWR of the twin-box girder bridges, and the relationships between the bending-torsional coupled oscillation, failure modes, and SWR of the bridges with anti-symmetric wind fairings are opposite to those with symmetric wind fairings.     

Application of the quadrature method to flexural vibration analysis of a geometrically nonlinear beam

The quadrature method (OM) has been used in structural analysis only in recent years. In this study, OM is applied to flexural vibration analysis of a geometrically nonlinear beam. The numerical results by OM agree with the results by the finite element method. It is believed that this is the first attempt to solve a nonlinear dynamic problem by the quadrature method.     

Size-dependent free vibration analysis of composite laminated Timoshenko beam based on new modified couple stress theory

A micro-scale free vibration analysis of composite laminated Timoshenko beam (CLTB) model is developed based on the new modified couple stress theory. In this theory, a new anisotropic constitutive relation is defined for modeling the CLTB. This theory uses rotation–displacement as dependent variable and contains only one material length scale parameter. Hamilton’s principle is employed to derive the governing equations of motion and boundary conditions. This new model can be reduced to composite laminated Bernoulli–Euler beam model of the couple stress theory. An example analysis of free vibration of the cross-ply simply supported CLTB model is adopted, and an explicit expression of analysis solution is given. Additionally, the numerical results show that the present beam models can capture the scale effects of the natural frequencies of the micro-structure.     

Strain-based geometrically nonlinear beam formulation for modeling very flexible aircraft

This paper introduces a strain-based geometrically nonlinear beam formulation for structural and aeroelastic modeling and analysis of slender wings of very flexible aircraft. With beam extensional strain, twist, and bending curvatures defined as the independent degrees of freedom, the equations of motion are derived through energy methods. Some special treatments are applied to the formulation to effectively model split-beam systems and beam configurations with multiple nodal displacement constraints. Using the strain-based formulation, solutions of different beam configurations under static loads and forced dynamic excitations are compared against ones from other geometrically nonlinear beam formulations.     

Flapwise bending vibration analysis of a rotating double-tapered Timoshenko beam

In this study, free vibration analysis of a rotating, double-tapered Timoshenko beam that undergoes flapwise bending vibration is performed. At the beginning of the study, the kinetic- and potential energy expressions of this beam model are derived using several explanatory tables and figures. In the following section, Hamilton’s principle is applied to the derived energy expressions to obtain the governing differential equations of motion and the boundary conditions. The parameters for the hub radius, rotational speed, shear deformation, slenderness ratio, and taper ratios are incorporated into the equations of motion. In the solution, an efficient mathematical technique, called the differential transform method (DTM), is used to solve the governing differential equations of motion. Using the computer package Mathematica the effects of the incorporated parameters on the natural frequencies are investigated and the results are tabulated in several tables and graphics.     

Aeroelastic analysis of a rotating wind turbine blade using a geometrically exact formulation

In this paper, an aeroelastic analysis of a rotating wind turbine blade is performed by considering the effects of geometrical nonlinearities associated with large deflection of the blade produced during wind turbine operation. This source of nonlinearity has become more important in the dynamic analysis of flexible blades used in more recent multi-megawatt wind turbines. The structural modeling, involving the coupled edgewise, flapwise and torsional DOFs, has been performed by using a nonlinear geometrically exact beam formulation. The aerodynamic model is presented based on the strip theory, by applying the principles of quasi-steady and unsteady airfoil aerodynamics. Compared to the conventional steady aerodynamic model, the presented model offers a more realistic consideration of fluid–structure interactions. The resulting governing equation, expanded up to the third-order terms, is analyzed by using the reduced-order model (ROM). The ROM is developed by employing the coupled mode shapes of a cantilever blade under free loading condition. The specifications of the 5MW-NREL wind turbine are used in the simulation study. After verifying the ROM results by comparing them with those of the full FEM model, the model is used in additional static, modal and transient dynamics analyses. The results indicate the important effect of geometrical nonlinearity, especially for larger structural deformations. Moreover, nonlinear analyses reveal the important effects of torsion induced by lateral deformations. It is also found that the governing equation is more efficient, and sufficiently accurate, when it is developed by using the second-order kinetic terms, third-order potential terms and the second-order aerodynamic terms together with third-order damping. Finally, the effects of nonlinearities on the flutter characteristics of wind turbine blades are evaluated through frequency and dynamic analyses.     

Nonlinear vibration analysis of geometrically nonlinear shell structures

The nonlinear vibration analysis of a geometrically nonlinear shell structure is investigated in this study. In general, when the shell structure is subjected to excessive loadings, the large deformation of the shell structures must be considered, and the governing equation of the shell structure becomes nonlinear since the stiffness matrix of the governing equation is related to the deflection. Therefore, the natural frequency of the shell structure is varied with respect to the time which is quite different from that of the linear structures. In order to solve the nonlinearity of the governing equations of the shell structures, the well known Newton-Raphson iteration procedure in conjunction with Newmark scheme is adopted to perform the frequency analysis of the nonlinear-shell structures. Incidentally, the natural frequencies for various curvatures of the shell structures are also investigated from the practical engineering point of view.     

基于无网格法的Timoshenko曲梁动力分析

曲梁具有外形美观、受力性能良好的优点,故在工程中得到广泛应用。本文基于移动最小二乘近似和一阶剪切变形理论,提出一种对Timoshenko曲梁自由振动和受迫振动进行分析的无网格方法。通过一系列离散点离散曲梁,建立曲梁无网格模型,然后推导曲梁势能和动能方程,通过哈密顿原理给出曲梁自由振动和受迫振动的控制方程,因为本文方法不能直接施加边界条件,所以使用完全转换法处理本质边界条件,最后求解方程得到频率和振动模态。文末通过算例验证了本文方法的有效性,且通过收敛性分析表明本文方法具有较好的收敛性,并进一步分析了不同边界条件、跨高比和变截面变曲率对曲梁自由振动和受迫振动的影响,将计算结果与文献解或ABAQUS解进行对比分析,表明本文方法具有较高的精度,且适用于实际工程情况。     

Explicit frequency equations of free vibration of a nonlocal Timoshenko beam with surface effects

Considerations of nonlocal elasticity and surface effects in micro-and nanoscale beams are both important for the accurate prediction of natural frequency. In this study, the governing equation of a nonlocal Timoshenko beam with surface effects is established by taking into account three types of boundary conditions: hinged–hinged, clamped–clamped and clamped–hinged ends. For a hinged–hinged beam, an exact and explicit natural frequency equation is obtained. However, for clamped–clamped and clamped–hinged beams, the solutions of corresponding frequency equations must be determined numerically due to their transcendental nature. Hence, the Fredholm integral equation approach coupled with a curve fitting method is employed to derive the approximate fundamental frequency equations, which can predict the frequency values with high accuracy. In short,explicit frequency equations of the Timoshenko beam for three types of boundary conditions are proposed to exhibit directly the dependence of the natural frequency on the nonlocal elasticity, surface elasticity, residual surface stress, shear deformation and rotatory inertia, avoiding the complicated numerical computation.     

多孔功能梯度材料Timoshenko梁的自由振动分析

基于Timoshenko梁理论研究多孔功能梯度材料梁(FGMs)的自由振动问题.首先,考虑多孔功能梯度材料梁的孔隙率模型,建立了两种类型的孔隙分布.其次,基于Timoshenko梁变形理论,给出位移场方程、几何方程和本构方程,利用Hamilton原理推导多孔功能梯度材料梁的自由振动控制微分方程,并进行无量纲化,然后应用微分变换法(DTM)对无量纲控制微分方程及其边界条件进行变换,得到含有固有频率的等价代数特征方程.最后,计算了固定-固定(C-C)、固定-简支(C-S)和简支-简支(S-S)三种不同边界下多孔功能梯度材料梁自由振动的无量纲固有频率.将其退化为均匀材料与已有文献数据结果对照,验证了正确性.讨论了孔隙率、细长比和梯度指数对多孔功能梯度材料梁无量纲固有频率的影响.     

Refined geometrically nonlinear formulation of a thin-shell triangular finite element

A refined geometrically nonlinear formulation of a thin-shell finite element based on the Kirchhoff-Love hypotheses is considered. Strain relations, which adequately describe the deformation of the element with finite bending of its middle surface, are obtained by integrating the differential equation of a planar curve. For a triangular element with 15 degrees of freedom, a cost-effective algorithm is developed for calculating the coefficients of the first and second variations of the strain energy, which are used to formulate the conditions of equilibrium and stability of the discrete model of the shell. Accuracy and convergence of the finite-element solutions are studied using test problems of nonlinear deformation of elastic plates and shells. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 160–172, September–October, 2007.     

Frequency analysis of nonlinear free vibration of a cross string

This work concerns nonlinear free vibration of a cross string under large amplitude. The equations governing the nonlinear vibration of the cross string are derived at first from the Hamilton principle, and they take the form of Duffing equation. Then the perturbation method is used to solve the nonlinear coupled natural frequency of the cross string. The nonlinear natural frequency not only has the characteristic of nonlinearity, but also reflects the coupled characteristic, i.e., the natural frequency of the cross string varying with that of its constituent strings. The results show that the overall effect on the cross string is somehow averaged due to the nonlinearity of each constituent string, i.e., the natural frequencies of the cross string contain both the linear natural frequencies of the constituent strings and the nonlinear parts that depend upon the vibration amplitude, the diameter of one constituent string, the length ratio of the two strings, etc., but the contribution of each constituent string to the natural frequency is in different proportions.     

A micro scale geometrically non-linear Timoshenko beam model based on strain gradient elasticity theory

In this study, a micro scale non-linear Timoshenko beam model based on a general form of strain gradient elasticity theory is developed. The von Karman strain tensor is used to capture the geometric non-linearity. Governing equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived using Hamilton's principle. For some specific values of the gradient-based material parameters, the general beam formulation can be specialized to those based on simple forms of strain gradient elasticity. Accordingly, a simple form of the microbeam formulation is introduced. In order to investigate the behavior of the beam formulation, the problem of non-linear free vibration of a simply-supported microbeam is solved. It is shown that both strain gradient effect and that of geometric non-linearity increase the beam natural frequency. Numerical results reveal that for a microbeam with a thickness comparable to its material length scale parameter, the effect of strain gradient is higher than that of the geometric non-linearity. However, as the beam thickness increases, the difference between the results of the classical beam formulation and those of the gradient-based formulations become negligible. In other words, geometric non-linearity plays the essential role on increasing the natural frequency of a microbeam having a large thickness-to-length parameter ratio. In addition, it is shown that for some microbeams, both geometric non-linearity and size effect have significant contributions on increasing the natural frequency of non-linear vibrations.     

Analytical test functions for free vibration analysis of rotating non-homogeneous Timoshenko beams

In this paper, the governing equations for free vibration of a non-homogeneous rotating Timoshenko beam, having uniform cross-section, is studied using an inverse problem approach, for both cantilever and pinned-free boundary conditions. The bending displacement and the rotation due to bending are assumed to be simple polynomials which satisfy all four boundary conditions. It is found that for certain polynomial variations of the material mass density, elastic modulus and shear modulus, along the length of the beam, the assumed polynomials serve as simple closed form solutions to the coupled second order governing differential equations with variable coefficients. It is found that there are an infinite number of analytical polynomial functions possible for material mass density, shear modulus and elastic modulus distributions, which share the same frequency and mode shape for a particular mode. The derived results are intended to serve as benchmark solutions for testing approximate or numerical methods used for the vibration analysis of rotating non-homogeneous Timoshenko beams.