Free Vibration Analysis of Tapered Rayleigh Beams resting on Variable Two-Parameter Elastic Foundation

This study aims at analyzing the effect of variable foundation parameters on the natural frequencies of a prestressed tapered Rayleigh beam having general elastically restrained ends. In this work, the elastic coefficients of the foundations are assumed varying along the beam major axis. In particular, the constant, linear and parabolic variations of the Pasternak foundation are considered. A semi-analytical approach known as differential transform method (DTM) is applied to the non-dimensional form of the governing equations of motion of the prestressed tapered Rayleigh beam and a set of recurrence algebraic equations are determined. Performing some direct algebraic operations on these derived equations and using some computer codes developed and implemented in MAPLE 18, the dimensionless natural frequencies and the associated mode shapes of the beam are obtained, the effects of these Pasternak foundation variations for various values of the slenderness ratio on the natural frequencies are investigated. It is found among others that : (i) an increase in foundation stiffness led generally to an increase in the natural frequencies; (ii) the constant elastic variations of Pasternak foundation produced highest values of natural frequencies; and (iii) the natural frequencies of tapered Rayleigh beam resting on Pasternak foundation are higher than those from the same beam on Winkler foundation. Finally, the efficiency and accuracy of differential transform method are illustrated by solving two numerical examples of vibration problems and validating the results obtained with those in the open literature, and are found to compare favorably well.