Dynamic instability of composite beams under

parametric excitation
q
Meng-Kao Yeh
*
, Yao-Ting Kuo
Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan, ROC
Received 18 December 2002; received in revised form 15 December 2003; accepted 3 February 2004
Available online 11 March 2004
Abstract
The dynamic instability of graphite/epoxy composite beams under parametric excitation was investigated experimentally and
analytically. In experiment an electromagnetic device, acting like a spring with alternating stiness, was designed to parametrically
excite the composite beam. The dynamic system of the composite beam was analyzed based on the assumed-modes method and the
Lagranges equation. The derived dynamic equation, which contains parametrically excited terms, is a general form of Mathieus
equation. An analytical method, dierent from the traditional perturbation method, to determine the instability regions of the
composite beam was applied to obtain the transition curves. The instability regions of the system were found to be functions of the
modal parameters of the composite beam and the position, the stiness of the electromagnetic device for the cantilevered composite
beams. The ber orientation, the length, the width and the thickness of the composite beams were varied to assess their eects on the
dynamic instability behavior of the composite beams. The experimental results were found to agree well with the analytical ones.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Dynamic instability
1. Introduction
The dynamic instability of structures has been a
branch in the theory of applied elasticity. Earlier struc-
tural collapse examples, such as the collapse of the Ta-
coma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and the loss of dynamic
stability of aircraft wings, showed that the instability
issue should be considered in the structural design stage.
If, for example, a straight beam is under a periodic axial
load, which is less than the static buckling load, possible
lateral resonant vibration may occur at double or
combinational values of the natural frequencies. This is
so-called the parametric instability.
Parametric instability is an important dynamic be-
havior for foundations of rotating machinery and bridge
columns [1] and other structures. Bolotin [2] summarized
the parametric instability problem for various structural
elements. Evan-Iwanowski [3] and Nayfeh and Mook [4]
also had review articles on this problem. The dynamic
equation of parametric instability problem can be ex-
pressed as a Mathieus equation. Hsu [57] solved the
Mathieus equation with dierent boundary conditions
analytically to discuss the instability regions. Nayfeh and
Mook [8] and Fox [9] used the multi-scale method to solve
the multiple degree-of-freedom system under parametric
excitation. Iwatsubo et al. [10,11] investigated the insta-
bility regions of the Mathieus equation numerically.
As the parametric instability experiment is concerned,
Bolotin [2] observed a simply supported beam subjected
to a periodic force and its simple resonance at twice the
fundamental frequency. Iwatsubo et al. [1012] investi-
gated the parametric resonance of elastic elements under
a periodic load along the axis or at the tangential di-
rection; they experimentally studied the simple and
combination resonances of an elastic beam under an
axial periodic force with one end built-in and the other
simply supported. Evensen and Evan-Iwanowski [13]
discussed the eects of the axial inertia force on the in-
stability region of column under parametric resonance.
q
This paper was presented at the third Asian-Australasian Confer-
ence on Composite Materials, Auckland, New Zealand, 1517 July
2002, Paper No. ACCM3-TW-8.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-3-5742595; fax: +886-3-5726414.
E-mail address: mkyeh@pme.nthu.edu.tw (M.-K. Yeh).
0266-3538/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2004.02.001
Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893
COMPOSITES
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech
Sato et al. [14] studied the eects of the position and the
weight of a concentrated mass on the instability be-
havior of a simply supported beam under an axial pe-
riodic force. Yeh and Chen [15] investigated analytically
a general column under a periodic load in the direction
of the tangency coecient at any axial position; they
gave the physical explanations of the parametric reso-
nances by viewing the system energy. Chen and Yeh [16]
assessed the simple and combination resonances of a
general column carrying an axially oscillating mass. For
composite structures, Ray and Kar [17,18] investigated
numerically the parametric instability behavior of a
laminated and partially covered composite beam under
an axial periodic load.
The analytical and numerical studies on the para-
metric instability behavior of columns or beams are
abundant; however, the experiment-related works are
rather limited and the experimental study about com-
posite beams under parametric resonance is, to our
knowledge, not reported in the literatures. In this paper,
the parametric instability of graphite/epoxy composite
beams under parametric excitation was investigated ex-
perimentally and analytically by extending the similar
work done for metal beams [19]. In analysis, the system
dynamic equation of composite beams was derived rst;
then the instability bandwidths were obtained. In ex-
periment, the parametric instability behavior of com-
posite beams was observed using electromagnetic spring.
The geometric parameters, including the ber orienta-
tion, the length, the width and the thickness of the beam,
were varied to evaluate their eects on the instability
behavior of the composite beam.
2. Parametric excitation of a composite beam
The dynamic instability of composite beams under
parametric excitation was investigated analytically and
experimentally. In analysis, the composite beam with a
parametric exciter (an electromagnetic device), idealized
as a spring, was considered to derive the system dynamic
equation, which is a Mathieus equation with multiple
degrees of freedom. The instability regions of the system
can be determined from the natural frequencies, the
damping coecients, the mode shapes of the transverse
vibration of the composite beam, and the position and
the amplitude of the exciter.
2.1. Dynamic equation of composite beam
The dynamic system of a composite beam excited by
an electromagnetic shaker can be idealized by a system
as shown in Fig. 1. The left end of the composite beam is
xed and the right end free. In Fig. 1, point P, located at
the neutral axis of a composite beam, has a concentrated
mass m
0
and is connected with a spring kt. The length
of the composite beam is L, the total mass M, the mass
per unit length qx, the damping coecient cx, and
the bending stiness Dx. The following assumptions
are made:
1. The composite beam is assumed to be initially
straight and its geometric and material properties
are symmetric to the neutral axis.
2. The beam is a BernoulliEulers beam.
3. Only small deection in the y-direction is considered.
4. Only small proportional viscous damping is consid-
ered.
5. The gravitational eects are neglected.
If the transverse deection of the composite beam is
mx; t, the systemdynamic equation without spring kt is
qx m
0
d x x
0

o
2
mx; t
ot
2
cx
omx; t
ot

o
2
ox
2
Dx
o
2
v
ox
2
_ _
0: 1
In Eq. (1), dx x
0
is a unit pulse function; and x
0
is the
x-coordinate of point P. Since the composite laminated
Fig. 1. Idealized model for a composite beam under parametric excitation.
1886 M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893
beam is neither homogeneous nor isotropic, the bending
rigidity Dx is obtained from Classical Lamination
Theory [20]. For a uniform beam with specied ber
orientation, Dx is a constant and is determined from
the material and geometric properties of the composite
beam.
2.2. Assumed-modes method
By assumed-modes method [21], the transverse de-
ection of a beam mx; t can be expressed as summation
of the orthonormal vibration modes w
n
x multiplied by
the corresponding modal displacement q
n
t as
mx; t

1
n1
w
n
xq
n
t: 2
In which q
n
t is a function of time. For specied con-
dition, the orthonormal vibration modes w
n
x must
satisfy
_
L
0
qx m
0
d x x
0
w
n
xw
m
x dx d
nm
: 3
Since the orthonormal vibration modes w
n
x have no
analytical form, it is found numerically. The vibration
modes must satised the boundary condition of the
composite beam, which is xed at the left end and free
on the right.
2.3. Dynamic equation of composite beam with paramet-
ric excitation
Assume that the orthonormal vibration modes w
n
x
are the modes used in the assumed-modes method. After
connecting the spring kt to the system, as shown in
Fig. 1, the system dynamic equation can be obtained
from the Lagranges equation [19]
q
n
t d
n
_ q
n
t x
2
n
q
n
t kt

m
w
n
x
0
w
m
x
0
q
m
t 0;
n 1; 2; . . . ; 4
in which d
n
is the modal damping coecient, x
n
is the
undamped natural frequency of the system. The above
equation is modied with the following dimensionless
quantities:
s x
1
t; g
n
d
n
=2x
1
; x
n
x
n
=x
1
;
es kt=2Mx
2
1
; h
nm
Mw
n
x
0
w
m
x
0
: 5
When the spring has alternating stiness, i.e.,
es e cos xs, Eq. (4) becomes
q
n
s 2g
n
_ q
n
s x
2
n
q
n
s 2e cos xs

m
h
nm
q
m
s 0;
n 1; 2; . . . 6
The above equation is a Mathieus equation, in which
the parametric excitation term is combined with the
modal displacement q
n
. The parametric excitation co-
ecients h
nm
in Eq. (6) are functions of the mode shapes
w
n
and of the mass of the composite beam M.
2.4. Criteria for parametric instability
After nding the coecient h
nm
in the parametric
excitation term, the instability bandwidth of the simple
and combination resonances of the Mathieu equation,
Eq. (6), can be determined from the stiness amplitude
of the spring e, the natural frequencies of the composite
beam x
n
, x
m
, and the instability bandwidth parameter
H
nm
[16,19].
(1) Simple resonance. When the excitation frequency
x is near twice the natural frequency 2 x
n
, and the
instability bandwidth parameter H
nn
is dened as
H
nn

h
nn
= x
n
_ _
2
4 g
n
=e
2
; g
n
6 0;
h
nn
= x
n
_ _
2
; g
n
0;
_

_
7
the transition curves separating the stable and unstable
regions are
x 2 x
n
eH
1=2
nn
when H
nn
> 0: 8
(2) Combination resonance of sum type. When the
excitation frequency x is near twice the sum of the
natural frequencies x
n
x
m
, and the instability band-
width parameter H
nm
is dened as
H
nm

g
n
g
m

2
=g
n
g
m
h
nm
h
mn
=4 x
n
x
m
g
n
g
m
=e
2
; g
n
or g
m
60;
h
nm
h
mn
=4 x
n
x
m
; g
n
; g
m
0;
_
9
the transition curves separating the stable and unstable
regions are
x x
n
x
m
eH
1=2
nm
when H
nm
> 0: 10
For the dynamic system considered in Fig. 1, all the
parametric excitation coecients h
nm
in Eq. (6) are of
symmetric form. Therefore, the combination resonance
of dierence type does not occur [19]. Besides, the crit-
ical damping coecient of the system can be found by
comparing the analytical results with the experimental
ones. The critical excitation amplitude e
cr
is the mini-
mum excitation amplitude for which the system becomes
unstable parametrically; i.e., when the instability band-
width parameter H
nm
becomes zero, from Eq. (9)
e
cr

4g
n
g
m
x
n
x
m
h
nm
h
mn
_ _
1=2
: 11
3. Dynamic instability experiment
In addition to analysis, the instability experiments
were performed to verify the analytical solutions. If the
M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893 1887
experiments are focused on the systems subjected to a
periodically axial loading, the instability regions of these
problems are easily aected by the geometric imperfec-
tion of the composite beam axis, the coupling eects
between the excitation mechanism and the specimen,
and the eccentricity of the axial load. In this work, an
electromagnetic device [19] was used and treated as a
non-contacting electromagnetic excitation force in the
transverse direction. Hence, the disturbances induced
from the geometric imperfection of the composite beam,
the eccentricity of the axial force and the coupling eects
between the excitation mechanism and the composite
beam were eectively avoided.
The electromagnetic device consisted of a pair of
magnets and a pair of coils as shown in Fig. 2. As a
current ows through the coil, the coil becomes an
electromagnet. The mutual acting forces between the
electromagnet and the pair of magnets make the elec-
tromagnetic device function, like a spring with positive
and negative stinesses depending on the current direc-
tion. When the coil current is an AC current, the elec-
tromagnetic device acts like an electromagnetic spring
with alternating stiness applied on the structures
transversely.
3.1. Determination of the electromagnetic spring stiness
Fig. 3 shows a graphite/epoxy laminated beam, xed
at the left end, was used in experiment with coils at-
tached on both sides near its right end. Fig. 4 shows the
schematic to measure the natural frequency of a com-
posite beam with an electromagnetic device [19]. An
impact hammer with a force transducer was used to
excite the composite beam specimen. Since the trans-
verse displacement is relatively small near the xed end
for a vibrating beam which results in little eect on the
transverse vibration of the composite beam. An accel-
erometer was attached near the xed end and used to
measure the dynamic behavior of the specimen. Two
signal conditioners were used to provide power to the
accelerometer and the force transducer, whose signals
were analyzed and displayed on a dynamic signal ana-
lyzer. An electromagnetic device, equivalent to a con-
centrated mass and a variable stiness spring at the
connecting point, was mounted on each composite beam
specimen. The experiments were conducted and re-
peated for each specimen at various dc coil currents. The
relationship between the transverse fundamental fre-
quency x
1
of the composite beam specimen and the DC
coil current I of the electromagnetic spring was obtained
as shown in Fig. 5 for 90
16
composite beam. Giving
dierent spring stiness e, the fundamental frequency of
the beam-spring system was obtained from modal ei-
genvalue analysis as shown in Fig. 6 for 90
16
com-
posite beam. After comparing the experimental results,
as shown in Fig. 5, with the analytical ones as shown in
Fig. 6, the relations between the stiness e and the DC
coil current I of the electromagnetic spring were ob-
tained for each specimen. Fig. 7 shows the electromag-
netic spring stiness e versus DC coil current I for 90
16
composite beam. The experiments were performed for
each dierent specimen and repeated at each varied DC
coil current. In Fig. 7, a good linear relationship can be
seen between the stiness e and the DC coil current I of
the electromagnetic spring. Other specimens also show
good eI linear relationship.
Fig. 2. Schematic of electromagnetic device on composite beam.
1888 M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893
3.2. Parametric instability experiment
Fig. 8 shows the experimental setup for measuring the
parametric instability behavior of composite beams. The
electromagnetic spring, powered with an AC source, was
used to excite the composite beam. The AC power
source has frequency range from 45 to 500 Hz. The
dynamic signal analyzer was used to analyze and to
observe the dynamic signal from the accelerometer.
During the experiment, the frequency was tuned step by
step, with 0.2 Hz increment, from the lower limit of the
power supply to the higher limit. At each tuned fre-
quency, the AC coil current of the electromagnetic
spring was increased from zero to the maximum satu-
rated current to observe the dynamic response of the
composite beam. The instability of the composite beam
Fig. 4. Experimental setup for measuring the electromagnetic spring stiness of composite beams.
Fig. 3. Cantilever composite beam with coils attached on both sides near its right end.
Fig. 5. Fundamental frequency versus DC coil current for 90
16
composite beam.
Fig. 6. Electromagnetic spring stiness versus fundamental frequency
for 90
16
composite beam.
M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893 1889
was observed as rapidly increasing amplitude of trans-
verse vibration occurred. Once the instability occurred,
the AC current was cut o and the frequency and am-
plitude of the excitation current were recorded. The
experiments were performed to observe the simple res-
onances near twice the fundamental frequency. The
process was repeated for the measurement of the next
excitation frequency.
4. Results and discussion
The instability of graphite/epoxy composite beams
under parametric excitation was investigated experi-
mentally and analytically. The ber orientation, the
length, the width and the thickness of the composite
beams were varied to assess their eects on the dynamic
instability behavior of the composite beams.
Fig. 9 shows the dynamic instability regions at twice
natural frequencies 2x
1
, 2x
2
and the combination fre-
quency x
1
x
2
of a composite beam with 15
2

2s
,
length L 300 mm, width b 30 mm. The excitation
frequencies x
1
and x
2
were non-dimensionalized by the
fundamental natural frequency x
1
. Fig. 10 shows spe-
cically the dynamic instability regions at twice the
fundamental frequency of the composite beam with
15
2

2s
. In Fig. 10, the analytical results were the
cases with the modal damping value g
1
0, 0.01, 0.02,
0.03, 0.04 and 0.05. The modal damping value g
1
can be
identied from Eq. (11) for given e
cr
from experiment;
for the case in Fig. 10, g
1
0:029. The experimental
Fig. 7. Electromagnetic spring stiness versus DC coil current for
90
16
composite beam.
Fig. 8. Experimental setup for measuring the parametric instability of composite beams.
Fig. 9. Dynamic instability regions of composite beam with 15
2

2s
. , analytical results; , experimental results.
1890 M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893
results were found to agree well with the analytical
ones.The analytical equations (7)(10) are used to de-
termine the transition curves between stable and unsta-
ble regions for both cases with and without modal
damping coecient. The modal damping coecients
were found after comparing the analytical and experi-
mental results as shown in Fig. 10. Since the modal
damping coecient of the composite beams is relatively
small (g
1
0:029 in Fig. 10), the modal damping coef-
cient can be ignored when obtaining the transition
curves in Fig. 9. For the experimental method for in-
stability in the known references, the beams were usually
excited at the tip by an axial periodic force or by an axial
periodic oscillation at the base. Therefore, the experi-
mental results were easily aected by the geometric im-
perfection of the beam, or by the eccentricity of the
loading device. In this paper, the non-contacting para-
metric excitation force (an electromagnetic spring force)
is perpendicular to the beam axis, the above-mentioned
negative eects were avoided appropriately.
Fig. 11 shows the analytical values at twice the fun-
damental frequency for composite beams with varied
ber orientation. Since after normalization with the
fundamental frequency of each beam, all the tip fre-
quency values of the transition region of each specimen
coincide on the horizontal axis; therefore, the excitation
frequency (Hz) was used on the horizontal axis. The
instability regions at twice the fundamental frequency
are aected by the mass and vibration modes of the
composite beam, which are inuenced by the position
and mass of the excitation device. After xing these
parameters, the results show the same instability band-
widths after non-dimensionalizing the frequency by the
fundamental frequency. The main purpose of this study
was to determine the transition curves between stable
and unstable regions. Since the modal damping coe-
cient of the composite beams is relatively small, the
modal damping coecient can be ignored when ob-
taining the transition curves between stable and unstable
regions for the analytical results. The tip frequency
values of each transition region, without damping, were
plotted as shown in the following gures. Fig. 12
shows the parametric excitation frequency versus ber
Fig. 10. Dynamic instability regions at twice the fundamental fre-
quency of composite beam with 15
2

2s
. , analytical results
(g
1
0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05); , experimental results
(g
1
0:029).
Fig. 11. Dynamic instability regions at twice the fundamental fre-
quency of composite beam with h
2

2s
.
Fig. 12. Parametric excitation frequency versus ber orientation of
composite beam with h
2

2s
.
M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893 1891
orientation of composite beam with h
2

2s
. The fun-
damental frequency x
1
was obtained from experiment
and used to normalize the frequencies as shown in Eqs.
(7)(10) for the analytical results; therefore, the analyt-
ical and experimental 2x
1
agree well with each other.
However, small and reasonable dierences occurred
between the analytical and experimental x
1
x
2
and
2x
2
. In Fig. 12, the instability excitation frequencies
decrease as the ber orientation increases. At ber ori-
entation 90
O
, the instability excitation frequencies de-
crease abruptly. The analytical results agree well with
the experimental ones.
As the length of the composite beam decreases, the
instability excitation frequency increases, as shown in
Fig. 13 for composite beam with 45
2

2s
. The lengths
were 300, 275 and 250 mm. Since the ratio of the mass of
electromagnetic device to the mass of the composite
beam increases slightly for shorter composite beams, the
instability bandwidths change slightly for dierent
lengths of composite beams. Fig. 14 shows the para-
metric excitation frequency versus the width of com-
posite beams with 45
2

2s
. The widths were 30, 27.5
and 25 mm. In Fig. 14, the instability excitation fre-
quency increases for narrower composite beams. In
Fig. 15, as the layers of the composite beam increases,
the instability excitation frequency increases accordingly
Fig. 13. Parametric excitation frequency versus length of composite
beam with 45
2

2s
.
Fig. 14. Parametric excitation frequency versus width of composite
beam with 45
2

2s
.
Fig. 15. Parametric excitation frequency versus ply number of com-
posite beam with 45
2

s;2s;3s
.
1892 M.-K. Yeh, Y.-T. Kuo / Composites Science and Technology 64 (2004) 18851893
as expected for composite beam with 45
2

s;2s;3s
. The
numbers of plies were 8, 16 and 24. Good agreement was
obtained between the analytical results and the experi-
mental ones.
5. Conclusions
The parametric instability of graphite/epoxy com-
posite beams under electromagnetic excitation was
investigated experimentally and analytically. The fol-
lowing conclusions can be drawn:
1. The non-contacting electromagnetic device was used
successfully to parametrically excite a composite
beam in the transverse direction. The eects of the
geometric imperfection of the beam, and the eccen-
tricity of the loading device were avoided appropri-
ately. The system modal damping value can be
identied.
2. The analytical and experimental results agree well
with each other, especially for the case of twice the
fundamental frequency.
3. The instability excitation frequencies decrease as the
ber orientation increases for composite beam with
h
2

2s
. At ber orientation 90, the instability excita-
tion frequencies decrease abruptly.
4. The instability excitation frequency decreases for
longer, wider and thinner composite beams.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Science Council,
Taiwan, the Republic of China through Grant NSC89-
2212-E-007-087, for supporting this work.
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