Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

ON THE FREE VIBRATION

CANTILEVER BEAM

OF

A-15:1-6

MULTIPLE-STEPPED

Slavia alini1, Aleksandar Nikoli2

1

Faculty of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

University of Kragujevac, 36000 Kraljevo, Dositejeva 19, Serbia
e-mail: salinic.s@mfkv.kg.ac.rs
2
Faculty of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
University of Kragujevac, 36000 Kraljevo, Dositejeva 19, Serbia
e-mail: nikolic.a@mfkv.kg.ac.rs
Abstract. A method for the determination of natural frequencies of a cantilever beam with
multiple steps in free bending vibration by a rigid multibody system is proposed. The
considerations are performed in the frame of Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The method
consists of two steps. In the first step, the spans of the cantilever beam are replaced by
lumped masses interconnected by massless flexible beams. In the second step, the massless
flexible beams are replaced by massless rigid beams connected through revolute and
prismatic joints with corresponding springs in them. The method proposed is illustrated via
examples.

1. Introduction
In this paper, a method for the analysis of flexible multiple-stepped cantilever beam by a
system of rigid bodies, as an alternative to the approaches in [1,2,3], has been proposed.
Studying vibration of this type of the beam is important because these beams are frequently
used in aeronautical, mechanical, and civil engineering. Also, the beams with continuously
changed cross-section are approximately represented by stepped beams (see e.g., [4]). The
approach proposed is based on the Rauth method [5] of replacing a rigid beam by an
equivalent system of particles that has the same mass, the same center of mass, and the
same inertia tensor as that of the original beam. The considerations in this paper are based
on the results from [6].
2. A rigid multibody model of a flexible cantilever multiple-stepped beam
Consider the free bending vibration of a straight EulerBernoulli beam of length L having
clamped end A and free end B and consisting of n uniform segments, as shown in Fig. 1.
The i-th beam segment has the mass mi , Youngs modulus of elasticity Ei , and the axial
moments of inertia I iz for the principal axis z of the cross section. In regard to [6], the
discretization of the beam segments consists of two steps, as shown in Fig. 2. In the first

Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

A-15:1-6

step, based on the Routh method, the i-th beam segment is replaced by a system composed
of three particles M (i ),1 , M (i ), 2 , and M (i ),3 connected with flexible massless beams
(see Fig. 2(a)). The masses of the particles M (i ),1 , M (i ), 2 , and M (i ),3
are,
respectively,

m( i ),1 5mi / 9, m( i ), 2 mi / 3,

m( i ),3 mi / 9, i 1, n .

Figure 1. The flexible cantilever multiple-stepped beam.

Figure 2. The rigid multibody model of the i-th flexible beam segment.

(1)

Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

A-15:1-6

Note that in [6] was used such disposition of particles in which two particles placed at the
ends and the third particle at the middle of the beam segment. The particle disposition
presented yields the higher accuracy than one given in [6]. In the second step of modelling,
each of the massless flexible beams is replaced by a system of three rigid massless beams,
as shown in Fig. 2(b). The particles M (i ),1 , M (i ), 2 , and M (i ),3 are rigidly connected
to the corresponding beams. The rigid beams are interconnected by the revolute and
prismatic joints with appropriate springs in them (cylindrical spring in the prismatic joint
and the spiral spring in the revolute joint) (see Fig. 2(b)). Based on [6], stiffness of the
springs in the joints are:

c( i ),1 c( i ),5

768 Ei I iz
4 Ei I iz
96 Ei I iz
2 Ei I iz
, c( i ), 2 c( i ),6
, c(i ),3
, c( i ), 4
, i 1, n .
3
3
Li
Li
Li
Li

(2)
As in the case with the modelling techniques presented in [1,2,3], in order to obtain more
accurate results it is necessary to use a larger number of rigid bodies. Here, this is achieved
by dividing each of beam segments shown in Fig. 1 into p equal parts of length Li / p .
After that, Eqs. (1) and (2) are reduced to the following form:
m( i ),3 j 2 5mi / 9 p,

m( i ),3 j 1 mi / 3 p,

m( i ), 3 j mi / 9 p,

i 1, n ; j 1, p ,

(3)

c( i ),16 j c( i ), 56 j

768 p 3 Ei I iz
4 pEi I iz
, c( i ), 26 j c( i ),66 j
,
3
Li
Li

(4)

c( i ),36 j

96 p 3 Ei I iz
2 pEi I iz

, c(i ), 46 j
, i 1, n ; j 0, n 1.
3
Li
Li

(5)
Thus, the free bending vibration of the stepped beam shown in Fig. 1 can be approximately
analysed by a system of 6np rigid bodies interconnected by revolute or prismatic joints
with corresponding springs in them.
3. Formulation of the eigenvalue problem
The kinetic energy of the multibody system considered is determined by:

1 6 np 6 np
mij (q) q i q j
2 i 1 j 1

(6)

where an overdot denotes the derivative with respect to time t and where

Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013
3 np

rM

qi

mij (q) m

rM
q j

A-15:1-6

, q [ q1 ,..., q6 np ]T . (7)

The relative joint displacements are denoted by qi (i 1, 6np ) . In Eq.(7), rM is the

vector position of the particle M relative to the inertial frame Axyz .
The potential energy of the system of springs in the joints reads:

1 6 np 2
ci q i .
2 i 1

(8)

The configuration of the multibody system, q 0 [q1 0,..., q6 np 0]T , corresponds to

the equilibrium state of the flexible beam shown in Fig. 1 in absence of gravity and the load
at the free end B. The linearised equations of motion of the considered multibody system
about the equilibrium position q 0 read [7]:
Kq 0 6 np 1
Mq

(9)

where 0 6 np 1 R 6 np 1 is a zero matrix, K diag (c1 ,..., c6 np ) is the stiffness

matrix [7], and M R 6 np 6 np is the mass matrix [7] whose components are determined
by:

rM

3 np

M ij mij (q 0 ) m
1

rM

qi

q j

q0

, i, j 1,...,6np.
q0

(10)
Since the multibody system contains massless beams, the mass matrix M is singular (see
e.g., [8,9]). By directly calculations, it can be confirmed that rank M 3np . In regard
to this, using the approach from [9], the differential equations (9) may be reduced to a
system composed of 3np differential equations and 3np algebraic equations. In this sense,
let us change the positions of the columns and rows of the matrix M in order to obtain a
new matrix in which the first 3np columns and rows represent odd columns and rows and
the last 3np even ones in increasing order of indices of the matrix M . In regard to this,
the differential equations (9) can be written in a form of partitioned matrices:

M11

M 21

K 11
M12 q
1

M 22 q2
0 3np 3np

0 3n p3np q1
0 6 np 1

K 22 q2

q1 [ q1 , q3 ,..., q6 np 1 ]T ,

where

K 11 diag (c1 , c3 ,..., c6 np 1 ) ,

M ij R

3 np 3 np

(i, j 1,2) , and 0 3 np 3np R

(11)

q2 [q2 , q4 ,..., q6 np ]T ,
K 22 diag (c2 , c4 ,..., c6 np )
3 np 3 np

is a zero matrix. By

Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

A-15:1-6

directly calculating it can be proved that det M11 0 . Following the approach of [9]
and using a coordinate transformation of the form:

I 3 np 3 np
q1
q
2
0 3np 3 np

1
M 11
M 12 q1

- I 3np 3np q 2 ,

(12)

where I 3 np 3 np R 3 np 3 np is an identity matrix, the equations of motion (11) can be

reduced to the following form:
~
B
q
q1 03np 1 ,
1

~
~
q2 B q1 ,

(13)

(14)

~
1
~
B K 22 K 21 ,

where: B M11
(K 12
K 22 K 21 K 11
),

1
K 12
K 11 M11
M12 ,

K 11
K 11 ,

1
K 21 M 21M11
K 11 ,

1
1
K 22 K 22 M 21M11
K 11 M11
M12 , 03 np 1 R 3 np 1 is a zero matrix (for details
of calculations see [9]). Now, the eigenvalue problem [7] corresponding to the differential
equations (13) reads:

~
(B - 2 I)v 0 3np 1 ,

(15)

Where is the natural frequency of the flexible multiple-stepped cantilever beam in free
bending vibration and v R 3np 1 is the eigenvector associated with the natural
frequency . Finally, solving the eigenvalue problem (15), the approximative values of
the natural frequencies of the beam are obtained.
4. Numerical example
As an example, consider a three-stepped beam with circular cross-section with Youngs
modulus E 2.068 1011 N / m 2 , mass density 7850 kg / m 3 , total length
L 2.0 m , diameter d1 0.03 m as well as d 2 / d1 0.8 , d 3 / d1 0.65 ,

d 4 / d1 0.25 , L1 0.25 L , L2 0.3L , L3 0.25 L , L4 0.2 L . In further

considerations, for convenience of comparisons with the results from [10], the nondimensional frequency coefficients, L

2 A1 L4 /( EI1z ) , is used. Using the

above theory, the approximative numerical values of the first three non-dimensional
frequency coefficients are obtained. These frequency coefficients along with the
corresponding relative errors are shown in Table 1. The errors are calculated as:
4

approximat ive value

100 100 [%]. (16)
exact value

Number of divisions

Non-dimensional frequency coefficients

Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

1 L

2L

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3L

2.50875
4.41772
5.75408
(-0.05%)
(-0.6%)
(-1.1%)
2
2.50994
4.44279
5.81369
(-0.006%)
(-0.06%)
(-0.1%)
3
2.51005
4.44468
5.81793
(-0.002%)
(-0.02%)
(-0.03%)
Exact solution [10 ] 2.51010
4.44542
5.81961
Table 1. The lowest three non-dimensional frequency coefficients,

i L

i2 A1 L4 /( EI1z ) (i 1,2,3)

As can be seen in Table 1, results show quite good agreement with the exact solutions. It
can be concluded that frequencies converge to their exact values with the increase of the
number of divisions p .

5. Conclusions
This paper presents a new method of analysis of flexible beams with multiple steps by a
system of rigid bodies. The method is applied to solve the problem of determining natural
frequencies of a cantilever beam with multiple steps in free bending vibration. By analysing
~ , it can be concluded that this process can be
the process of determining the matrix B
automated with relatively simple program implementation in some of the programming
environments such as Mathematica, Matlab, Maple etc. It should be pointed out that in
order to determine the approximate numerical values of natural frequencies, the described
method does not require the formation of transcendental frequency equation and their
numerical solving. The method can be also adapted to study bending vibrations of
multiple-stepped flexible beams with various kind of boundary conditions at the ends such
as clamped-clamped, clamped-pinned, pinned-pinned etc.
Acknowledgement. Support for this research was provided by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia under Grants No.
TR35006 and No. ON174016. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
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[3] Molenaarx D P and Dijkstra Sj (1998) Modeling the Structural Dynamics of the Lagerwey LW-50/750m Wind
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Fourth Serbian (29th Yu) Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Vrnjaka Banja, Serbia, 4-7 June 2013

A-15:1-6

[4] Tong X, Tabarrok B, Yeh K Y (1995) Vibration Analysis of Timoshenko Beams with Non-Homogeneity and
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