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PARAMETRIC INSTABILITY OF TAPERED BEAMS BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

P. K. Dattat
S. Chakrabortyt
The dynamic stability behaviour of a tapered beam has been studied using a finite element analysis. The instability zones of the parametric stability diagram have been discussed for the entire ranges of static and dynamic load factors. It has been observed that at high values of static load and beyond a particular value of the dynamic load factor, the periodic solution of the Mathieu equation does not exist in the principal region. This leads to unstable behaviour due to large displacement of the beam due to increasing values of static and dynamic load factors.

1 INTRODUCTION

The parametric instability behaviour of structural elements is of major concern to mechanical and structural engineers. Structural members are frequently subjected to axial periodic forces varying with time. These forces may result in parametric vibrations which can damage the structural element because of large amplitudes of oscillations. The stability of lateral motion of a uniform bar subjected to pulsating periodic axial loads was first studied by Beliaev (1)$ and later by Mettler (2) and others (3H5), and is well documented in the book by Bolotin (6). When the ends of the bar are simply supported, the governing differential equation is a single equation of the MathieuHill type for which the well-known regions of stability and instability indicate the stability or instability of the lateral motion of the bar. For arbitrary support conditions, the general approach of by most of the investigators was one in which either integral equations or the Galerkin method was used to reduce the governing equations of the problem to a single Mathieu-Hill equation. Brown et al. (7) studied the dynamic stability of uniform bars with various boundary conditions using the finite element method. Ahuja and Duffield (8) investigated the same problem using a slightly modified Galerkin method. A discrete element type of numerical approach was employed by Burney and Jaeger (9) to study the parametric instability of a uniform column. The most recent publications on the subject are given in
(10).

Mass matrix Axial periodic load Fundamental static buckling load Time independent amplitudes of load Generalized coordinates Stability matrix Variable time Kinetic energy Potential energy Axial displacement of node Transverse displacement of node Coordinate along the axis of the beam Static load factor Dynamic load factor Mass density of the material of the beam Disturbing frequency Fundamental natural frequency
2 ANALYSIS

Let the simply supported tapered bar shown in Figs l(a) and l(b) be represented by an assembly of finite elements connected together at the nodes. A typical finite element is shown in Fig. l(c) with u i ,v i , Oi and u j , v j , Oj as the generalized coordinates. The matrix equation for the free vibration of axially loaded discretized system in which rotary and longitudinally inertia are neglected is

In the work described here a finite element approach has been employed to obtain the regions of dynamic instability of tapered beams having simply supported boundary conditions, and to draw conclusions as to the nature of the regions of instability and their dependence on the axial static and dynamic load.
1.1 Notation A(x) Area of cross-section of the tapered beam at

CMl{ii) + CK,I{q) - CSl{qI = 0 (1) in which {q} = generalized coordinates, [MI = mass [K,] = elastic stiffness matrix, and matrix, [ S ] = stability matrix which is a function of the axial load P.

E I(x) [K] [K,] 1

any station Modulus of elasticity Moment of inertia of a section Stiffness matrix Elastic stiffness matrix Elemental length
ui.vi. ei
uj,

The MS. o this paper was received at the Institution on 24th November f 1981 and accepted for publication on 17th June 1982. t Aeronautical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur-721302, India. References are given in the Appendix.
Journal Mechanical Engineering Science 0 IMechE 1982

yej

Fig. 1 . Simply supported tapered beam

Val 24 No 4 1982

0022-2542/82/1200-0205 $02.00