AS5925: Morphing Structures: Analysis and Control

Approximate methods
(Galerkin, Rayleigh Ritz methods)

Presented by,
Anilkumar and Anshuman 
Approximate Methods 2

The approximate methods are necessary when the exact solution of differential
equations can not be obtained such as in case of
▶ non uniform geometry
▶ presence of concentrated masses
▶ non classical boundary conditions.
The success of these methods depends on the choice of shape function that need
to satisfy the geometrical boundary conditions.
Approximated comparison functions are in form
Consider a uniform cantilever beam with density ρ, Young’s modulus E, 3
area of cross-section A and length l

The boundary conditions at the fixed end x = 0 are

The boundary conditions at the free end x = L are

Rayleigh’s Method 4

➢ The kinetic energy can be expressed as

➢ The potential energy of the beam

➢ By equating we obtain Rayleigh s quotient:

Rayleigh Ritz methods 5

➢ Rayleigh's method can be used to determine the fundamental frequency only.

➢ The accuracy of the result depends on the chosen admissible function.

➢ Raleigh's method gives the value of frequency which is higher than the exact value.

➢ To get higher frequencies, one need to take more than one term and apply Rayleigh-Ritz
method.

➢ In R-R method, the contribution of each term is different and establishing the criteria for
selection of significant terms is a challenging Research problem.
 Consider a uniform cantilever beam with density ρ, Young’s modulus E, area
of cross-section A and length l 6
Transverse displacement field variable is then expressed as

Lagrangian of the beam then reads

The discretized equations of motion of the cantilever beam are then obtained
using the Lagrange’s equation as 7

Eigen frequencies are obtained as

The corresponding eigenvectors

 Consider a uniform cantilever beam with density ρ, Young’s modulus E,
area of cross-section A and length – Forced vibration 8

Transverse displacement field variable is then expressed as

Substitute in Lagrange's equations and get in the form
9

Which has to be solved for each time interval and get the final solution by

The eigenvalue problem for a uniform

cantilever beam with tip point mass is
shown as reference here

Check: Propose a quarter cosine wave solution to

satisfy all the boundary conditions:
Galerkin Method 10

In this method, we need to know the governing differential equations of the

continuous system. Again, the shape function is chosen such that it satisfies the
geometric boundary conditions. Consider the eigenvalue problem

Substituting, the series of comparison functions in the differential equations, an error

will be obtained.

Considering the orthogonality of the error with the assumed functions, Galerkin’s
equation is obtained as
Galerkin Method 11

The following relations are obtained

Which leads to
Free Cantilever Beam - Galerkin Method 12
Free Cantilever Beam - Galerkin Method 13
Forced Cantilever Beam - Galerkin Method 14
Forced Cantilever Beam - Galerkin Method 15