Computers and Structures 80 (2002) 691695

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Technical note
On free vibration analysis of thin-walled beams
with nonsymmetrical open cross-sections
A. Arpaci *, E. Bozdag
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Gumussuyu, 80191 Istanbul, Turkey
Received 13 March 2001; accepted 9 January 2002

Abstract
This work relates to the analysis of triply coupled vibrations of thin-walled beams having nonsymmetrical open
cross-sections. The governing dierential equations for coupled bending and torsional vibrations are derived and solved
exactly. A recent study on the same subject is criticized and discussed in theoretical and numerical aspects. 2002
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vibration; Coupled vibration; Beam

1. Introduction The mentioned authors [2] have derived the governing

Beams of thin-walled open cross-sections are widely
used in structural design. In general, the centroid and
the shear center do not coincide; hence the exural and
the torsional vibrations are coupled. The case that the
cross-section has a single axis of symmetry and conse-
quently the exural vibrations in one direction are
coupled with the torsional vibrations is extensively
studied by many researchers using EulerBernoulli the-
ory. But the number of studies dealing with coupled
exuralexuraltorsional vibrations is rather limited.
Yaman [1] investigates the triply coupled vibrations
of open-section channels by wave analysis method. The
coupled wave numbers, various frequency response
curves and the mode shapes are presented for undamped
and structurally damped channels. Recently, Tanaka
and Bercin [2] have extended the approach of Bishop
et al. [3] used previously to investigate the double cou-
pling, which owes much to the work of Dokumac [4],
to triply coupled vibrations of thin-walled beams.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-212-293-1300x2493; fax:
+90-212-245-0795.
E-mail address: arpacial@itu.edu.tr (A. Arpaci).
0045-7949/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 2 5 - 1
dierential equations of motion and obtained solutions
for various boundary conditions using Mathematica.
The present work is motivated by the fact that the
governing dierential equations of motion derived by
them exhibit a confusion of co-ordinate system.
It is well known that the product of inertia terms
must be included in the formulations of bending de-
ections unless the principal centroidal axes are used. In
the theory developed by the mentioned authors although
the exural displacement and the osets of the shear
center are determined with respect to the axes which are
perpendicular and parallel to the web of unsymmetrical
channel, the equations are formulated as if the principal
axes are used.
The purpose of the present study is to correct the
theory and to give accurate results.
2. Equations of motion
In Fig. 1 is shown a typical cross-section of no axial
symmetry where x and y axes are taken through the
centroid and parallel to the sides. X and Y are the axes
passing through the shear center S and parallel to the
centroidal axes. The equations for bending and non-
uniform torsion under static loads are
692 A. Arpaci, E. Bozdag / Computers and Structures 80 (2002) 691695

Fig. 1. Co-ordinate system.

d4 u d4 v kx Ix =Ixy ; ky Iy =Ixy ; kw GJ =EIw ; k0 qI0 x2 =EIw

EIy EI xy qX
dz4 dz4 ax qAx2 =EIxy ; ay qAx2 =EIy ; aw qAx2 e1 =EIw
4 4
dv du 1
2
bx qAx e1 =EIxy ; 2
by qAx e2 =EIy ; bw qAx2 e2 =EIw
EIx 4 EIxy 4 qY
dz dz D d=dz
d4 u d2 u
EIw 4  GJ 2 mt 4
dz dz
Thus the governing dierential equations are:
where u and v are deections of the shear center in X and D4  ay U ky D4 V by U 0
Y directions respectively, u is angle of rotation of cross-
D4 U kx D4  ax V  bx U 0 5
section, EIx and EIy are exural rigidities, EIxy is coupling
4 2
stiness, EIw is warping stiness, GJ is torsional con- bw U  aw V D  kw D  k0 U 0
stant, qX and qY are intensities of distributed forces and
Setting the determinant of the above system equal to
mt is intensity of distributed torque along shear center
zero yields an ordinary dierential equation of 12th or-
axis.
der, for each function, as follows
According to the dAlemberts principle the static

loads are replaced by inertia forces and the equations of a1 D12 a2 D10 a3 D8 a4 D6 a5 D4 a6 D2 a7 F 0
motion are thus obtained as follows, 6

where
o4 u o4 v o2 u o2 u
EIy 4
EIxy 4 qA 2  qAe2 2 0 a1 kx  ky ; a2 kw ky  kw kx
oz oz ot ot
o4 v o4 u o2 v o2 u a3 ax  ay k0 kx k0 ky
EIx 4 EIxy 4 qA 2 qAe1 2 0
oz oz ot ot a4 ax kw ay kw kx ; a5 ax ay  aw bx  aw by ax k0
o4 u o2 u o2 v o2 u o2 u ay k0  bw by kx  bw bx ky
EIw 4
 GJ 2 qAe1 2  qAe2 2 qI0 2 0
oz oz ot ot ot a6 ax ay kw ; a7 aw ay bx ax bw by  ax ay k0
2
7

and F denotes U, V or U.
where q is mass density, A is cross-sectional area, e1 and
Taking a solution of the form Cerz for the amplitudes
e2 are co-ordinates of centroid G, I0 is polar moment of
and introducing the variable s r2 , the following char-
inertia about shear center S and t is time.
acteristic equation can be obtained
For harmonic vibrations the displacements and the
torsional rotation may be expressed in the form a1 s6 a2 s5 a3 s4 a4 s3 a5 s2 a6 s a7 0 8

uz; t Uz sin xt; The general solutions of U, V and U are then,

vz; t V z sin xt; uz; t Uz sin xt 3 X
12 X
12 X
12
U Ai eri z ; V Bi eri z and U Ci eri z
i1 i1 i1

Let the following shorthand notations are dened as 9

 A. Arpaci, E. Bozdag / Computers and Structures 80 (2002) 691695 693

where Ai , Bi and Ci are three sets of constants. They are
not all independent, however. By substituting above
expressions into Eq. (5) only 12 integration constants are
obtained.
3. Boundary conditions
Clamped end: The well-known boundary conditions
for a clamped end are that the translations, rotations
and slopes are zero. Hence,
U 0; V 0; U 0; U 0 0; V 0 0; U0 0
Notice that the condition U0 0 is due to the warping
eect considered in the present theory, implied by the
restricted longitudinal displacement of the cross-section
which originally was plane [5], and is not considered
when SaintVenant theory is used.
Hinged end: A hinged end implies restraint against
translations and rotation but not against warping; that
is, the end of the beam does not rotate but is free to
warp. This means the longitudinal stress is zero, or, in
other words, U00 must be zero [5]. It is well known that
the bending moments are also zero. Hence the boundary
conditions are
U 0; V 0; U 0; U 00 0; V 00 0; U00 0
Free end: For a free end, the bending moments, the
torsional moment and the shear forces are equal to zero.
As no restraint against warping is implied the longitu-
dinal stress must be zero. The boundary conditions are
then
U 00 0; V 00 0; GJ U0  EIw U000 0; U 000 0;
V 000 0; U00 0
4. Numerical evaluation
them, it has not been possible to carry out the calcula-
tions for the same cross-section.
Another example is provided in order to exhibit the
good agreement between the results of the present the-
ory and that of [1], the latter being obtained by the wave
propagation approach.
4.1. Example 1
A thin-walled uniform beam with unsymmetric
channel section (Fig. 1) is considered. The geometric and
material properties of the beam are listed in Table 1. The
relative error due to co-ordinate confusion is shown in
Fig. 2 for two kinds of boundary conditions.
4.2. Example 2
A thin-walled uniform beam with a Z cross-section is
considered as the second example. Table 1 contains the
geometric and material properties. The relative error is
shown in Fig. 3 for two kinds of boundary conditions.
4.3. Example 3
Yaman [1] considers a simply supported thin-walled
beam with unsymmetric channel section as shown in Fig.
1 and having the following geometric and material
properties:
Table 1
Geometric and material properties of beams studied in Exam-
ples 1 and 2
Properties Beam cross-section
Example 1 Example 2

Application of the boundary conditions to Eq. (9) at

z 0 and z will yield 12 simultaneous linear ho-
mogeneous equations. The frequency equation which
can be numerically solved to give the values of x is
obtained by setting the determinant of the system equal
to zero.
EIx (N m2 ) 1.093E08 1.509E04
The relative error is dened as x  x0 =x, where x
EIy (N m2 ) 1.600E03 6.234E03
is the frequency obtained by the present theory and x0 is EIxy (N m2 ) 1.874E03 7.252E03
the frequency obtained in Ref. [2]. EIw (N m4 ) 9.746E02 9.934E01
The natural frequency analysis is performed for two GJ (Nm2 ) 2.034E02 9.720E01
kinds of cross-section; and two kinds of boundary I0 (m4 ) 1.052E07 2.720E05
conditions are considered for either of them. The nu- q (kg/m3 ) 7.860E03 7.860E03
meric results are obtained by using the present theory A (m2 ) 3.050E04 2.975E01
and the theory employed by Tanaka and Bercin [2]. e1 (m) 7.669E03 4.596E03
Because the mentioned authors do not give the value of e2 (m) 8.988E03 8.363E03
(m) 9.800E01 8.000E01
product of inertia for the cross-section considered by
694 A. Arpaci, E. Bozdag / Computers and Structures 80 (2002) 691695

Fig. 2. Relative error versus mode number for various end conditions (Example 1).

Fig. 3. Relative error versus mode number for various end conditions (Example 2).

Table 2
Natural frequencies (Hz) of beam studied as Example 3
Mode number
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
[1] 45.49 69.91 101.73 149.82 154.79 207.43 259.89
Present study 47.00 73.39 102.36 145.34 154.53 206.70 258.76

EIx 355:6 N m2 ; EIy 1568 N m2 ; wave propagation theory employed in [1]. The agree-
EIxy 297:5 N m ; 2
EIw 0:4977 N m ; 4 ment between them seems to be good.

GJ 1:352 N m ; 2
I0 4:6  108 m4 ;
q 2700 kg=m ; 3
A 9:68  105 m2 ; 5. Conclusions
e1 9:09  103 m; e2 10:43  103 m;
1:00 m: Figs. 2 and 3 show that considerable errors will arise
if the coupling stiness EIxy is not considered in non-
principal co-ordinate system. This is more profound
Table 2 shows the natural frequencies of above refer- when the product of inertia is of a great value as in Z
enced beam obtained by the present theory and by the cross-section. The relative errors are very small at some
 A. Arpaci, E. Bozdag / Computers and Structures 80 (2002) 691695
modes. This can be attributed to the fact that the ex-
ural coupling is not important at torsion-dominated
modes.
References
[1] Yaman Y. Vibration of open-section channels: a coupled
exural and torsional wave analysis. Journal of Sound and
Vibration 1997;204(1):13158.
695
[2] Tanaka M, Bercin AN. Free vibration solution for uniform
beams of nonsymmetrical cross section using Mathematica.
Computers and Structures 1999;71:18.
[3] Bishop RED, Cannon SM, Miao S. On coupled bending
and torsional vibration of uniform beams. Journal of Sound
and Vibration 1989;131(3):45764.
[4] Dokumac E. An exact solution for coupled bending and
torsion vibrations of uniform beams having single cross-
sectional symmetry. Journal of Sound and Vibration
1987;119(3):4439.
[5] Gere JM. Torsional vibrations of beams of thin-walled open
section. Journal of Applied Mechanics 1954;21:3817.