INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2001; 52:1221–1234 (DOI: 10.1002/nme.246)

In-plane vibrations of shear deformable curved beams

Moshe Eisenberger∗; † and Elia Efraim

Faculty of Civil Engineering; Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Technion City 32000; Israel

SUMMARY
This paper presents the exact dynamic sti6ness matrix for a circular beam with a uniform cross-section.
The sti6ness matrix is frequency dependent, and the natural frequencies are those that cause the matrix
to become singular. Using this matrix the exact natural frequencies of circular beams with various
boundary conditions are calculated and compared with available results in the literature. Copyright ?
2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS: curved beam; vibration; shear deformation; dynamic sti6ness; natural frequency

1. INTRODUCTION

The free vibration analysis of curved beams has been extensively studied by many investi-
gators [1]. Free vibration of plane curved beams involves in-plane and out-of-plane coupled
motions consisting of extension, ?exure, shear and twist. However, if the plane containing the
centreline of the undeformed beam axis is a principal plane of the cross-section at every point
along the bar and also a plane of material symmetry, the in-plane and out-of-plane motions
are uncoupled. The in-plane motion consists primarily of bending–extensional modes, while
the out-of-plane motion is essentially bending–twisting modes. The response of the curved
beam in the plane of the beam possess extensional modes as well as ?exural modes, which
are analogous to the corresponding modes of straight beams. However, the curvatures of the
curved beams introduce geometric coupling between these modes, unlike the modes of straight
beams, which are generally uncoupled. The initial curvature has been a source of diAculty in
developing governing relations between stress resultant and deformations. Thus, many theories
have evolved in attempts at reBning already existing ones like considering or excluding axis
extensibility and shear deformation e6ects. The majority of the existing theories are based
on the Euler–Bernoulli hypothesis of plane cross-section remaining plane during deformation,

∗ Correspondence to: Moshe Eisenberger, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology,
Technion City, Haifa, 32000 Israel
† E-mail:
cvrmosh@tx.technion.ac.il

Received 10 March 1999

Copyright ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised 15 January 2001
1222 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

which applies to thin curved bars at lower modes of vibration. For beams in which the e6ect
of the cross-sectional dimensions on frequencies cannot be neglected, and for beams in which
higher modes are required, the Timoshenko theory which considers the e6ects of rotary inertia
and shear deformation gives a better approximation to the true behaviour of the beam.
Archer [2] studied in-plane inextensional vibrations of an incomplete circular ring of a
small cross-section starting with the basic equations of motion as given by Love with the
addition of terms to represent damping e6ects. Takahashi [3] obtained the Lagrangian of
a circular arc bar vibrating in its plane and from the Lagrangian he obtained the radial
and tangential displacements in general forms. Under the condition that the Lagrangian must
be minimum, he obtained the frequency equation of the ring and a circular arc bar with
both ends simply supported. Wolf [4] analysed the free vibrations of elastic circular arches
employing 99 straight beam segments to approximate the arch. The elements have consis-
tant mass properties, neglecting transverse shear, but including the e6ect of rotatory inertia.
The direct-iterative eigensolution method which was used consists of solving a governing
equation for at least one of the eigenvalues and the associated eigenvector. Veletsos and
Austin [5] presented numerical solutions for the eight lowest natural frequencies of vibration
with associated modes of vibration. They showed that the vibrational modes may be almost
purely ?exural as in a beam, or almost purely extensional as in a ring executing a uniform
in-and-out motions, or the extensional and ?exural actions may be strongly coupled. Their
study is based on a theory which considers extensibility of the arch axis but neglects the
e6ects of rotatory inertia and shearing deformation. The di6erential equations are obtained
by specializing equations for cylindrical shells and incorporating the radial and tangential in-
ertial e6ects and solved numerically by a combination of a Hozler-type iterative procedure
and initial value integration procedure. Later on in a subsequent paper, Austin and Veletsos
[6] investigated the e6ects of the previously neglected factors (rotatory inertia and shear de-
formation) and the conditions under which these e6ects are of practical signiBcance or may
be neglected, and developed a simple approximated procedure for estimating the natural fre-
quencies of the arches. The arches considered are circular, of uniform cross-section and mass
per unit length. The solutions corresponding to symmetrical and antisymmetrical modes were
obtained separately by considering only one-half of the arch and a total of 40 divisions were
used for hinged arches and 60 divisions for Bxed arches. Wang and Guilbert [7] presented
a general method for analysing circular curved beams of multiple spans including both shear
and rotary inertia e6ects, using the condition of inextensional vibration. Irie et al. [8] pre-
sented natural frequencies of in-plane vibrations of circular arcs with uniform cross-section
under all combination of boundary conditions using the Timoshenko beam theory and transfer
matrix method. Issa et al. [9] presented a uniBed theory which includes the e6ects of trans-
verse shear and rotary inertia as well as the extensional e6ect of the neutral axis and derived
the general dynamic sti6ness matrix for a circular curved member in terms of rotational and
translational displacements. Gupta and Howson [10] developed the required dynamic element
sti6ness matrix for a curved member of constant radius and uniform cross-section from an es-
tablished theory, the background to which is given in Reference [9], and assuming throughout
that the member is suAciently slender that the e6ect of rotatory inertia and shear de?ection
can safely be ignored. They have presented the new procedure, based on Wittrick–Williams
algorithm [11], for converging with certainty upon any required natural frequency of the
structure. Such a procedure is extremely useful, since the conventional method of determining
natural frequencies, by tracking the zeroes of the determinant of the structure sti6ness matrix,

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1223

is prone to missing roots when the element formulation leads to a transcendental eigenvalue
problem.
An alternate procedure for the solution of partial di6erential equation is the method of
di6erential quadrature (DQM) applied by Kang et al. [12] to analyse the in-plane and out-
of-plane vibration of circular arches based on the Bresse–Timoshenko beam theory in which
both rotatory inertia and shear deformation are taken into account. The method expresses the
derivatives of a function at a discrete point in terms of the function values at all discrete
points. The lowest natural frequencies computed with 13 discrete points along the dimension-
less x-axis, showing that the accuracy of the numerical solutions increases with increasing
number of discrete points, passes through a maximum, but then decreases due to numeri-
cal instabilities if the number becomes too large. Chidamparam and Leissa [13] investigated
the free vibrations of circular arches about a prestressed static equilibrium state and with no
initial loading giving particular attention to the in?uence of the centreline stretching during
the vibratory motion, and ignoring complicating e6ects such as rotary inertia and shear de-
formation. Numerical results for free vibration frequencies were obtained by employing the
Galerkin method with polynomial trial functions that satisfy the geometric boundary con-
ditions. Yildirim [14] numerically treated the free vibrations of circular arcs (in-plane and
out-of-plane), considering all the e6ects of shear and axial deformations and rotary inertia,
with the help of the transfer matrix method. Numerical algorithm is employed for computa-
tion of the overall transfer matrix comprising large values of opening angles and slenderness
ratios, and di6erent type of sections.
Recently, Friedman and Kosmatka [15] derived the exact static sti6ness matrix for circular
beams. They showed that the element that they use is superconvergent and that it is free of
shear and membrane locking for static loading since the shape functions that they used are
the exact solution of the static problem. For frequency calculations they used the static shape
functions for the derivation of the mass matrix and their results are thus approximate.
This paper presents the exact dynamic sti6ness matrix for a circular beam. The matrix is
derived from the di6erential equations of motion for the beam. By applying unit values for the
end displacements of the beam, the shape functions are derived, and the axial and shear forces,
and the bending moment are calculated as the sti6ness terms. The sti6ness matrix is frequency
dependent, and the natural frequencies are those values of frequency that cause the matrix to
become singular. This sti6ness matrix is free of membrane and shear locking as the shape
functions that are used are the exact solution of the di6erential equations of motion. Using
this matrix the exact natural frequencies of circular beams with various boundary conditions
are calculated and compared with available results in the literature.

2. DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF MOTION

The di6erential equations of motion were derived in Reference [15] and are written here in
a di6erent form as all the derivatives are with respect to the central angle rather than the arc
length along the beam. These are

EA d 2 U kGA A dV d2 U
− U + (E + kG) − kGAO = AR (1)
R d2 R R d dt 2

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1224 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

kGA d 2 V EA A dU dO d2 V
− V − (E + kG) − kGA = AR (2)
R d2 R R d d dt 2
EI d 2 O kGA dV kGA d2 O
+ − U − kGAO = I (3)
R2 d2 R d R dt 2

where E is the modulus of elasticity, G the shear modulus, k the shear correction factor, A
the cross-sectional area, I the moment of inertia for the cross-section, R the radius of the
beam,  the density of the material, U the axial displacement, V the radial displacement, and
O the bending slope along the beam. For harmonic vibrations we assume

U (; t) = u() sin(!)t (4)

V (; t) = v() sin(!)t (5)
O(; t) = () sin(!)t (6)

and the equations of motion are

EA d 2 u kGA A dv
− u + (E + kG) − kGA = −AR!2 u (7)
R d 2 R R d
kGA d 2 v EA A du d
− v − (E + kG) − kGA = −AR!2 v (8)
R d2 R R d d
EI d 2 kGA dv kGA
+ − u − kGA = −I!2 (9)
R2 d2 R d R

Normalizing the equations using the relation  = =0 , where 0 is the central angle of opening
for the circular beam, and assuming for the solution the following polynomials:

∞
u= ui i (10)
i=0

∞
v= vi i (11)
i=0

∞
i
= i (12)
i=0

we obtain after equating terms with the same power of  in these equations, the following
recurrence formulas for ui+2 ; vi+2 and i+2

   
1 kG 2 kG kG 2  2 2
ui+2 =  ui − 1 + 0 (i + 1)vi+1 + R0 i − R0 ! ui (13)
(i + 1)(i + 2) E 0 E E E

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1225

   
1 E 2 E  2 2 2
vi+2 =  vi + 1 + 0 (i + 1)ui+1 + R0 (i + 1) i+1 − R 0 ! v i
(i + 1)(i + 2) kG 0 kG kG
(14)
1
i+2 = [−kG0 AR(i + 1)vi+1 +kGAR20 ui +kGAR2 20 i − IR220 !2 i ] (15)
(i + 1)(i + 2)EI

and we have all the ui ; vi and i coeAcients except for the Brst two in each series, and these
should be found using the boundary conditions. The terms for ui+2 ; vi+2 and i+2 converge
to 0 as i → ∞. For this case we choose as degrees of freedom in the formulation the lateral
de?ection and ?exural rotation at the two ends of the beam element. At  = 0 we have
u0 = u(0), v0 = v(0) and 0 = (0), so the Brst term is known from the boundary conditions.
The terms u1 ; v1 and 1 are found as follows: All the ui ’s, vi ’s and i ’s are linearly
dependent on the Brst two in each series, and we can write

u(1) = C0 u0 + C1 u1 + C2 v0 + C3 v1 + C4 0 + C5 1 (16)
v(1) = C6 u0 + C7 u1 + C8 v0 + C9 v1 + C10 0 + C11 1 (17)
(1) = C12 u0 + C13 u1 + C14 v0 + C15 v1 + C16 0 + C17 1 (18)

The eighteen Ci coeAcients are functions of the axial, shear and ?exural sti6nesses of the
element. C0 for example, is the value of u(1) when u0 = 1 and u1 = v0 = v1 = 0 = 1 = 0
calculated from Equation (10) using the recurrence formulas in Equations (13)–(15). For the
derivation of the sti6ness matrix we have to apply unit displacement or rotation at each of
the six degrees of freedom for the element, one at a time and calculate all the terms in the
series for u, v and using the recurrence formulas. Then the axial force, shear force, and the
bending moment at the two ends of the element ( = 0 and 1) will be the sti6nesses for the
member.

Table I. Non-dimensional frequencies  = !L2 (A=EI ) of a circular beam with uniform cross-section and
pinned–pinned boundary conditions (s = 23:56; R=r = 15; kG=E = 0:3; 0 = 90◦ ).

Austin and Veletsos and

Veletsos [6] Present study Present study Present study Austin [5]
Mode SD + RI SD + RI NS + RI NS + NR NS + NR

1 29.61-A 29.2799 32.1099 32.8465 33.32-A

2 33.01-S 33.3049 33.6291 33.8984 33.56-S
3 67.24-S 67.1235 79.1349 82.2741 81.49-A
4 79.6-A 79.9708 81.2352 84.2977 84.89-S
5 107.7-A 107.8511 136.4028 152.5423 152.5-S
6 144.5-S 143.6175 151.6523 153.5704 153.8-A
7 155.2-S 156.6656 202.5515 227.6708 225.7-A
8 191.3-A 190.4771 224.3972 238.8162 241.7-S
9 223.7-A 225.3611 274.7784 303.6468
10 235.3-S 234.5235 297.8201 339.2418

Note: S—symmetric mode, A—asymmetric mode, NS—without shear deformation, NR—excluding e6ect of rotary
inertia, SD—considering e6ect of shear deformation, RI—including e6ect of rotary inertia.

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1226 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

Thus, there are six sets of boundary conditions as follows:

(1) u(0) = 1; v(0) = (0) = u(1) = v(1) = (1) = 0;
(2) v(0) = 1; u(0) = (0) = u(1) = v(1) = (1) = 0;
(3) (0) = 1; u(0) = v(0) = u(1) = v(1) = (1) = 0;
(4) u(1) = 1; u(0) = v(0) = (0) = v(1) = (1) = 0;


Figure 1. Non-dimensional frequencies  = !L2 (A=EI ) of pinned–pinned beam.

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1227

(5) v(1) = 1; u(0) = v(0) = (0) = u(1) = (1) = 0;

(6) (1) = 1; u(0) = v(0) = (0) = u(1) = v(1) = 0;
Corresponding to these six sets there are six solutions Ui ; i = 1; 6 for u(), Vi ; i = 1; 6 for
v(), and Fi ; i = 1; 6 for () which are found using Equations (13)–(15). These are the

Figure 1. Continued.

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1228 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

dynamic shape functions for the circular beam model as these are frequency dependent. Then,
the holding actions, i.e. sti6nesses are
 
EA Ui; 1
S(1; i) = − + Vi; 0 (19)
R 0

Figure 1. Continued.

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1229

 
Vi; 1 Ui; 0
S(2; i) = −kGA − − Fi; 0 (20)
R0 R
EI
S(3; i) = − Fi; 1 (21)
R0
 
EA 1
∞
∞
S(4; i) = mUi; m + Vi; m (22)
R 0 m=1 m=0
 
1
∞ 1
∞
∞
S(5; i) = kGA mVi; m − Ui; m − Fi; m (23)
R0 m=1 R m=0 m=0

EI
∞
S(6; i) = mFi; m (24)
R0 m=1

The natural frequencies of vibration for the number are the values of ! that cause the
dynamic sti6ness matrix for the element to become singular. For a structure that is built
of several variable cross-section members, the dynamic sti6ness matrix is assembled as is
usually done in Bnite element analysis, for each frequency !. The values of ! at which the
determinant of the dynamic sti6ness matrix is equal to zero, are the natural frequencies of
vibration for the structure. A simple search routine is applied to Bnd these values up to the
desired accuracy.

3. EXAMPLES

In the Brst example a study of natural frequencies for a simply supported thick circular
beam with uniform cross-section has been carried out for  the following numerical data:
s = L=r = 23:56, R=r = 15, kG=E = 0:3, 0 = 90◦ , where r = (I=A).


Table II. Non-dimensional frequencies  = !L2 (A=EI ) of a
circular beam with uniform cross-section and clamped–clamped
boundary conditions (s = 25; kG=E = 0:3; 0 = 90◦ ).

Mode Austin and Veletsos [6] Present study

1-S 36.81 36.7030706

2-A 42.44 42.26350131
3-S 82.5 82.23297187
4-A 84.3 84.49146227
5-A 122.5 122.30528340
6-S 155.1 154.94468013
7-S 167.7 168.20264774
8-A 204.47181823
9-A 238.99202355
10-S 249.6 249.01137900
11-A 293.59370529
12-S 316.05311241

Note: S—symmetric mode, A—asymmetric mode.

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1230 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

The results presented in Table I were obtained for the following three cases: (a) neglecting
both the shear deformation and rotary inertia e6ects, (b) including only the e6ect of rotary
inertia, and (c) considering both the rotary inertia and shear deformation e6ects. The e6ect
of shear deformation can be eliminated by assigning a large value to the shear sti6ness term.
The results are compared with those obtained by Veletsos and Austin [5] and show that for
thick beams with a small value of slenderness the e6ect of shear deformation is larger than
that of the rotary inertia. In Figure 1 the plot of the dynamic sti6ness matrix determinant vs


Figure 2. Non-dimensional frequencies  = !L2 (A=EI ) of a circular beam with uniform cross-section
and clamped–clamped boundary conditions (s = 25; R=r = 15:92; kG=E = 0:3).

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1231

the frequency and the plots of the Brst 10 mode shapes are shown. The modes are shown
together with the undeformed shapes, and also on the spread axis with all the components
of the response: u; v; , and the shear angle  = − dv=dx. From the shapes we can easily
identify symmetric and anti-symmetric modes.
In the second examples a study of natural frequencies for a clamped–clamped thick circu-
lar beam with uniform cross-section has been carried out for the following numerical data:

Figure 2. Continued.

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1232 M. EISENBERGER AND E. EFRAIM

s = L=r = 25; kG=E = 0:3, and 0 = 90◦ . The results are presented in Table II. The results are
compared with those obtained by Austin and Veletsos [6]. In Figure 2 the plot of the dynamic
sti6ness matrix determinant vs the frequency and the plots of the Brst 10 mode shapes are
shown. From the shapes we can easily identify symmetric and anti-symmetric modes.
In the third example results are given in Table III for a pinned–pinned beam with various
opening angles and compared with the results in References [8] and [14]. The numerical

Figure 2. Continued.

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 IN-PLANE VIBRATIONS OF SHEAR DEFORMABLE CURVED BEAMS 1233


Table III. Non-dimensional frequencies  = !R2 (A=EI ) of circular beam with uniform
cross-section and pinned–pinned boundary conditions (s = 2R=r = 20; kG=E = 0:3).

Angle (deg) Mode Irie et al. 1983 [8] Yildirim 1997 [14] Present study

60 1 23.75 23.799 23.799185

60 2 39.05 39.144 39.144203
60 3 62.38 62.976 62.976120
60 4 70.71 71.042 71.041569
120 1 10.61 10.629 10.629336
120 2 15.19 15.194 15.193805
120 3 24.72 24.756 24.755831
120 4 30.47 30.598 30.598384
180 1 4.151 4.160 4.160407
180 2 8.542 8.546 8.545747
180 3 15.46 15.481 15.480691
180 4 17.91 17.921 17.921279

data for this example is: A = 4 ×10−4 m2 , E = 2:1 ×1011 N m−2 ,  = 7850 N m−3 ,  = 0:3,
f = 1=k = 1:1, and s = 2R=r = 20. An excellent agreement is observed with the results in
Reference [15].

4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

In this work the exact terms in the dynamic sti6ness matrix for circular beams were derived.
These are the end forces of the beam when it is deformed with unit displacements at its ends.
The shapes are the exact solution of the di6erential equations of motion and thus the values
are exact. Several examples are given and compared with previously published values.

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3. Takahashi S. Vibrations of the circular arc bar in its plane. Bulletin of the JSME 1963; 6:666 – 673.
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5. Veletsos AS, Austin WJ. Free in-plane vibrations of circular arches. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE
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