VIBRATION AND DYNAMIC SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF A TIMOSHENKO BEAM-COLUMN WITH ELASTICALLY RESTRAINED ENDS AND INTERMEDIATE CONSTRAINTS

For dynamic analysis of a Timoshenko beam-column with elastically restrained ends and intermediate constraints consisting of an arbitrary combination of concentrated masses, rectilinear springs and rotational springs, an exact solution method for the natural vibrations and a Rayleigh-Ritz method with polynomials having the property of Timoshenko beam-column functions as trial functions for vibrations and dynamic sensitivity are presented. The latter is considered because of the very tedious computational process of the former in cases of multiple intermediate constraints. The results of some numerical investigations show that the Rayleigh-Ritz analysis with the characteristic polynomials is competitive with the exact solution in accuracy, and that it is much more efficient in computations than using Timoshenko beam-column functions, especially in dynamic sensitivity analysis. © 1993 Academic Press Limited.