Natural frequencies analysis of a composite beam consisting of Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam segments alternately

Present investigation is concerned with the free vibration property of a beam with periodically variable cross-sections.For the special geometry characteristic,the beam was modelled as the combination of long equal-length uniform Euler-Bernoulli beam segments and short equal-length uniform Timoshenko beam segments alternately.By using continuity conditions,the hybrid beam unit(ETE-B) consisting of Euler-Bernoulli beam,Timoshenko beam and Euler-Bernoulli beam in sequence was developed.Classical boundary conditions of pinned-pinned,clamped-clamped and clamped-free were considered to obtain the natural frequencies.Numerical examples of the equal-length composite beam with 1,2 and 3 ETE-B units were presented and compared with the equal-length and equal-cross-section Euler-Bernoulli beam,respectively.The work demonstrates that natural frequencies of the composite beam are larger than those of the Euler-Bernoulli beam,which in practice,is the interpretation that the inner-welded plate can strengthen a hollow beam.In this work,comparisons with the finite element calculation were presented to validate the ETE-B model.