Vibration analysis of a multi-span beam subjected to a moving point force using spectral element method

In this study, we propose a frequency domain spectral element method (SEM) for the vibration analysis of a multi span beam subjected to a moving point force. This study is an extension of the authors' previous study for a single-span beam subjected to a moving point force, where the two-element model-based SEM was applied. In this study, each span of a multi span beam is represented by the Timoshenko beam model and the moving point force is transformed into the frequency domain as a series of each stationary point force distributed on the multi-span beam. The span at which a stationary point force is located is represented by two-element model, but all other spans are represented by one-element models. The vibration responses to a moving point force are obtained by superposing all individual vibration responses generated by each stationary point force. The high accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed SEM are verified by comparing the solutions by SEM with exact analytical solutions by the integral transform method (ITM) as well as the solutions by the finite element method (FEM).