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IN-PLANE FREE VIBRATIONS OF CURVED TIMOSHENKO BEAMS WITH THE

RAYLEIGH-RITZ METHOD

Conference Paper · April 2019

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IN-PLANE FREE VIBRATIONS OF CURVED TIMOSHENKO
BEAMS WITH THE RAYLEIGH-RITZ METHOD
Shudong Ding, Jinghui Wu, Longtao Xie, Yangyang Zhang, and Ji Wang
MOE Key Laboratory of Impact and Safety Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering and Me-
chanics, Ningbo University, 818 Fenghua Road, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, China
email: wangji@nbu.edu.cn
Rongxing Wu
Department of Architectural Engineering, Ningbo Polytechnic, 1069 Xinda Road, Ningbo, Zhejiang
315800, China

Curved beams are frequently used structural elements in traditional and emerging fields of civil and
mechanical engineering with usual requirements of vibration and deformation analyses with the
beam theory and numerical methods. There are challenges in such analyses due to complex equa-
tions with the curved beams and numerical methods in case analytical solutions are not available. In
this study, curved beams with commonly encountered arc types are studied with the Rayleigh-Ritz
method used with the polynomial functions as the deformation for the calculations of strain and ki-
netic energies with the Timoshenko beam theory, and accurate frequencies and mode shapes are ob-
tained from convergent and verified solutions. It is the objective of this study that the method and
procedure will be extended to a short, curved, and periodic beam for its free vibrations for in-depth
understanding of such unusual but widely encountered structures from recent 3D-printing technolo-
gy. It is found that for the sinusoidal-shaped beams, we need the deformation in sine series up to the
25th-order, resulting a large size matrix equation for the eigenvalue extraction. Clearly, it is worth to
try other types of deformation functions to improve the computing efficiency for curved beams.
Eventually, the study will be extended to composite structures of periodic beams with shorter unit
cells from the 3D-printing technology showing up in broad applications today. Furthermore, addi-
tional considerations of higher-order theories and couplings of modes can also be included for more
practical and robust analyses.
Keywords: Vibrations, Curved Beams, Rayleigh-Ritz method, Frequency

1. Introduction
In the traditional and emerging fields of civil and mechanical engineering, as a frequently used
structural element, we utilize various beam theories and numerical methods to analyze the vibrations
and deformation of curved beams. The study of curved beam structures includes linear and nonlinear
free vibrations, static and dynamic analysis of in-plane and out-of-plane deformation, as well as static
and dynamic stability analysis [1]. With the linear free vibration analysis, we can calculate the natural
frequency and vibration modes, which are very important for a better understanding of the dynamic
behaviour of a structure with vital applications in structural design.

1
ICSV26, Montreal, 7-11 July 2019

Timoshenko [2] derived the differential equations of a spatially curved beam without considering
the influence of warpage. Vlasov [3] obtained the equilibrium equations of a curved beam by replacing
the strain of the curved beam with straight beam strain. Yang [4] derived the equilibrium differential
equation of a curved beam from the principle of virtual work. Many researchers have done a lot of
work on the analysis of curved beams [6-10]. Furthermore, curved beams with the consideration of all
effects of shear and axial deformations and rotary inertia have been studied [11-12]. Yildirim [13] nu-
merically treated the free vibrations of circular arcs with the help of the transfer matrix method.
The main objective of present paper is to study the in-plane free vibrations of curved beams with
constant and variable curvatures. By utilizing the Timoshenko beam theory, the in-plane free vibration
frequencies and mode shapes of the curved beam with variable curvature are calculated by using the
Rayleigh-Ritz method.

2. Basic equations
The present curved beam model takes into account of the axial extension, the effects of the rotation
and shear deformation, in addition to the flexure, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. The geometry of a curved beam.

Parameters in Figure 1 are the full length, curved angle, the span length and the rise of
the curved beam, respectively. Furthermore, is the radius of curvature, is the radial dis-
placement, is the tangential displacement and is the rotation due to bending.
Therefore, the kinetic energy for the curved beam is given as

∫ ( ) ∫ ( ) ∫ ( ) (1)

where are beam material density, cross-sectional area of the beam, time, and area moment
of inertia, respectively.
The strain energy for the curved beam can be expressed as

∫ ( ) ∫ ∫ ( ) (2)

where are the modulus of elasticity, the shear correction factor, and the shear modulus,
respectively.
When the radius of curvature is related to the arc length, with the radius of curvature , we
can obtain the relationship between and respectively. Now is rotation due to shear and
is beam's total tangential displacement with definitions
(3)

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ICSV26, Montreal, 7-11 July 2019

Using the Hamilton principle

∫ (4)
and substituting the geometrical and deformation relations in Eq. (3) into Eqs. (1) and (2) and selecting
and as the variables in applying Hamilton's principle [10] in Eq. (4), we can obtain
∫ ∫ * ∫[ ̇ ̇ ] ∫ ̇ ∫
(5)
∫* + ∫( ) ]

where are radial displacement, tangential displacement and rotation due to bending, respec-
tively. Differentiation with respect to spatial coordinates and time are indicated by a comma followed
by an index and a dot over a symbol, respectively.
Now we assume displacements as

(6)

where √ are displacement functions and circular frequency of the

curved beam, respectively.
Then by substituting Eq. (6) into Eq. (5), we can separate the displacements and time. With the Ray-
leigh-Ritz method, displacement functions can be assumed in the form of

∑ (7)

where the , and are unknown coefficients.

When we consider the beam at for the simply supported boundary conditions, that is
at (8)
where is the full length of the axial curve of beam.
To satisfy the boundary conditions, deformation functions , can be defined as
( )

( ) (9)

( )
where is the order of the deformation functions , and .
Substituting Eqs. (6) and (7) into Eq. (5), and considering the arbitrary , and to make the
unknown variables as vectors A, B and C as
{ }
{ } (10)
{ }

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ICSV26, Montreal, 7-11 July 2019

Consequently, from Eq. (5) can obtain the corresponding eigenvalue problem for the calculation of
vibration frequencies and modes shapes. With the normalization of the frequency, we have
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
(*[ ] [ ] [ ]+ * [ ] [ ] [ ] +) { } { } (11)
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
The elements of mass matrices and stiffness matrices in Eq. (11) are
[ ] ∫

[ ] ∫ (12)

[ ] ∫

[ ] ∫ ∫

[ ] ∫

[ ] ∫ ∫
(13)
[ ] ∫ ∫

[ ] ∫

[ ] ∫ ∫

where and is the order of the deformation functions , and .

If the curve of the axis is given by , the radius of curvature is
( ) (14)

Since the sinusoidal-shaped beam is described by Cartesian coordinates, it is necessary to represent

the arc coordinates in Cartesian coordinates. Now the axis of the curved beam we want to study is
̅ (15)
where ̅ is the amplitude of the curved beam.
It is clear that the eigenvalue problem for the in-plane free vibrations of curved Timoshenko beams
is presented. Solving the eigenvalue problem from equation (11), we can calculate the frequency of
the curved beam, and we can easily obtain the dimensionless frequency √ .

3. Numerical examples
In the first example, the in-plane free vibration frequencies of circularly curved beams with a con-
stant cross-section and simply supported ends are compared with the FEM results of COMSOL and
earlier studies [5]. In the second to fourth examples, the natural frequency of sinusoidal-shaped curved
beams which are simply supported at two ends are also compared with the FEM analysis. With the val-
ues of the amplitude ̅ are 0.1, 0.3 and 0.6 which means the value of ratios of amplitude to span length
are 0.0318, 0.0955 and 0.1910. Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 show nondimensional frequency parameters for
different types of curved beams with mass density , cross-sectional area , modulus of elasticity ,
the full length of curved beam , and cross-section moment of inertia . We can obtain the actual fre-
quencies of curved beams with √ .

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ICSV26, Montreal, 7-11 July 2019

Table 1 Nondimensional Frequency √ for Circularly Curved Beams

with Simply Supported Ends
m=1 m=2 m=3
l/R
FEM Ref. [5] Present FEM Ref. [5] Present FEM Ref. [5] Present
-- 9.8685 9.8696 9.8680 39.478 39.478 39.452 88.825 88.827 88.691
0.01 10.352 10.351 10.349 39.478 39.478 39.451 88.834 88.832 88.697
0.1 32.466 32.467 32.465 39.452 39.453 39.429 89.500 89.501 89.368
0.5 38.860 38.860 38.886 82.291 82.284 82.199 157.29 157.29 156.92
1 37.093 37.092 37.271 82.191 82.184 82.203 155.47 155.48 155.26
22.371 22.367 22.613 68.296 68.288 68.386 137.89 137.92 137.75

Table 2 Nondimensional Frequency √ for Sinusoidally Curved Beams

with Simply Supported Ends ( ̅ )
One half Two half Three half Four half
Order wavelength wavelengths wavelengths wavelengths
FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present
1 57.910 57.906 14.537 14.537 14.552 14.552 14.555 14.555
2 130.56 130.54 129.51 129.51 57.930 57.929 58.150 58.150
3 232.22 232.16 231.64 231.62 228.35 228.34 129.53 129.53
4 356.08 356.11 362.45 362.41 360.96 360.94 353.21 353.17
5 362.92 362.76 522.24 522.16 521.19 521.15 518.07 518.03
6 522.66 522.33 711.05 710.90 710.18 710.11 708.18 708.12
7 711.44 710.84 928.89 928.63 928.12 928.00 926.57 926.49
8 929.26 928.24 1175.8 1175.4 1175.0 1174.9 1173.7 1173.6
9 1176.1 1174.5 1424.0 1424.4 1451.0 1450.7 1449.8 1449.7
10 1452.0 1449.6 1451.7 1451.1 1756.0 1755.6 1754.9 1754.7

Table 3 Nondimensional Frequency √ for Sinusoidally Curved Beams

with Simply Supported Ends ( ̅ )
One half Two half Three half Four half
Order wavelength wavelengths wavelengths wavelengths
FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present
1 54.453 54.449 14.105 14.104 14.229 14.229 14.254 14.256
2 124.57 124.55 116.90 116.89 54.606 54.601 56.421 56.420
3 222.48 222.42 217.82 217.80 197.29 197.24 116.53 116.50
4 348.24 348.10 344.40 344.36 332.90 332.85 294.57 294.46
5 501.92 501.62 498.28 498.19 490.11 490.04 467.68 467.56
6 683.53 682.97 680.26 680.11 673.16 673.06 657.57 657.43
7 893.07 892.12 889.95 889.70 883.56 883.40 871.36 871.18
8 1029.5 1029.6 1127.5 1127.1 1121.2 1121.0 1110.9 1110.7
9 1130.5 1129.0 1393.0 1392.4 1387.3 1387.0 1377.7 1377.5
10 1396.0 1393.7 1686.4 1685.5 1681.0 1680.6 1672.0 1671.7

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ICSV26, Montreal, 7-11 July 2019

Table 4 Nondimensional Frequency √ for Sinusoidally Curved Beams

with Simply Supported Ends ( ̅ )
One half Two half Three half Four half
Order wavelength wavelengths wavelengths wavelengths
FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present FEM Present
1 45.471 45.468 12.849 12.848 13.276 13.320 13.368 13.404
2 107.65 107.63 90.059 90.043 45.848 45.841 51.402 51.399
3 195.09 195.04 181.90 181.87 147.49 147.44 87.419 87.364
4 306.85 306.73 295.06 295.00 265.67 265.60 225.59 225.48
5 443.39 443.15 430.62 430.52 409.32 409.22 360.40 360.17
6 604.69 604.24 593.58 593.42 572.91 572.75 532.13 531.84
7 790.78 790.03 780.39 780.15 760.74 760.52 727.81 727.50
8 1001.7 1000.5 991.62 991.25 969.03 968.69 941.62 941.19
9 1237.4 1235.5 1227.5 1226.9 1207.8 1207.4 1180.6 1180.0
10 1497.9 1495.2 1488.2 1487.5 1469.7 1469.3 1442.5 1441.8

4. Conclusions
We have successfully calculated vibration frequencies and precise mode shapes of sinusoidally
beams with arbitrary lengths. It is found that for the analysis of sinusoidally shaped beams, we need the
deformation functions , and in Eq. (9) in sine series up to the 25th-order or even higher,
resulting a large size matrix equation for the eigenvalue extraction. Clearly, it is worth to try other
types of deformation functions to improve the computing efficiency. Eventually, the study will be fur-
ther extended to composite structures of periodic beams from the 3D-printing technology showing up
with broad applications today. Furthermore, additional considerations of higher-order theories can also
be included for more practical and robust analyses. Since curved and periodic beams are widely en-
countered today with the fast advancing of 3D-printing technology, characterization of properties of
such structures is essential in the design and applications. The analysis of such structures is not well
studied due to the complex nature of the problem with curved geometry and existence of multiple de-
formation which make the formulation and consequently the calculation more challenging, as shown in
examples in this study. With the successful establishment of the Rayleigh-Ritz procedure for accurate
analysis, we shall focus on combinations of periodic beams which resemble the actual structures we see
from 3D-printing, thus moving closer to the goal of structural design. In the analytical process, it is also
necessary to find the optimal displacement function to enable the efficient computing.

Acknowledgment
The work is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.
11372145 and 11672142).

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