EXACT VIBRATION SOLUTIONS FOR NONUNIFORM TIMOSHENKO BEAMS WITH ATTACHMENTS

The exact solution for the free vibration of a symmetric nonuniform Timoshenko beam with tip mass at one end and elastically restrained at the other end of the beam is derived. The two coupled governing characteristic differential equations are reduced into one complete fourth-order ordinary differential equation with variable coefficients in the angle of rotation due to bending. The frequency equation is derived in terms of the four normalized fundamental solutions of the differential equation. It can be shown that, if the coefficients of the reduced differential equation can be expressed in polynomial form, the exact fundamental solutions can be found by the method of Frobenius. Finally, several limiting cases are studied and the results are compared with those in the existing literature.