A New Approach on the Response of Non-Uniform Prestressed Timoshenko Beams on Elastic Foundation Subjected to Harmonic Loads
The dynamic response of the Timoshenko beam resting on an elastic foundation subjected to harmonic moving load using modal analysis (MA) was investigated. The method of MA was employed to obtain a closed form solution to this class of dynamical systems. In order to use MA, accurate information is needed on the natural frequencies, mode shapes and orthogonality of the mode shapes. A thorough literature survey reveals that the method has not been reported in existing literature to solve non-prestressed Timoshenko beams. Thus, we present complete information on how to use MA to derive the forced vibration responses of a simply thick beam subjected to harmonic moving loads. The effects of axial force and foundation parameters on the dynamic characteristics of the beams are studied and described in detail. In order to validate the accuracy of this method, we compare the frequency parameter with the existing literature which appears to compare favorably.