8.3.

4 Transverse Vibration of Timoshenko Beam

S.P Timashenko made necssar corrections the tcchnical
in
thcory of beams to correct the discrepancy
berween the experimentallv observed natural frequency and its theoretical
value given by Euler-Ber-
noulli beam theor of a simply-supported beam. Accordingly, Timoshenko made two propositions to
modih thc equation ot motion ot a beam:
I. To take ot the rotational inertia of beam during its vibration
care

2 To take care of the conribution

of deformation due to shear (plane sections of beam will not thus
remain
plane after
bending, and there will be warping of the beam cross-sections)
For a

the deformation of beam due to shear, refer to

detailed discussion on

uSt here
Strength of Materials. We
accept thar because of shear dejformation, there will be an additional
beam element. as shown in
slope at the elastic line for a
Figure 8.13.

N A

(a)

(b)
Figure 8.13 Shear deformation of a beam.

Figure 8.13 shows small detormations of

differential
which has been assumed be
rectangular beam elements, because ot shear,
to
uniformly distributed across the beam cross-section (which in reality, is

Refer to:
Nag, IDetbatrata, Abijit Chanda. Fundamentals and Strength of Materials. Wiley lndia, New lelhi, 2010
nor). Because of the so-called complimentary property of shear stresses,the elements in the transverse
rse
Because of this, the bent neutral
Section of the beam also get deformed as shown in Figure 8.13.
une makes an angle, y, the shear-strain with neutral axis, which provides the additional slope of the

elastica, we discussed carliet. However, it is known that shear streses are non-unijorm!y distributedacros
elements will not be unitorm, as suggested
e beam cross-section, and hence the shear deformation of the
in Figure 8.13. One way oftackling this non-uniformity is to consider the average shear strain, vg and
then consider a shapefactor, K, and defining the maximum shear strain, Y (which occurs at the neutral

linc) as tollows:
Yavg V
Y K KGA (8.79)
The deinition and values of K associated with an excellent detailed discussion can be tound in [10].
Accondingly the shear deformation plays a role in causing beam deflection through the equation:

dv V
(8.80)
YKGA
Now, with this background fact in mind and together with the urgency to model the rotational inertia,
shown in Figure 8.14, we once again show the FBD of a deformed difterentially small prismatic
beam element, considering the additional slope of the bent neutral line (or the so-called, elastica) and
the rotaional inertia.

Undeformed
small beam element Mx v(x, t)
Beam-
portion v(x,t)
(M+ dMy
V dx
(V+dV
Tangent to the- (pldx) y (pAdx) Ot2
elastica at C Bent neutral line
(elastica)
(a) (b)
Figure 8.14 Geometry of deformation and FBD ofa Timshenko beam element.

Part(a) of the figure shows the essential geometrical features of a ngth

deformed, differentially small ieg
beam element. Clearly, we can write from the
that:figure
(8.81)
e x, t) y(«, t)
=
+ yx, t)
where,

Slope of the elastica for small deformation (8.82)

dx

12 ibid
Clearly, using Eqs. (8.81) and (8.80).

ylx, t)= V (8.83)

ox KGA
But from the elementary theory of bending, we get:

M, = - Ey (8.84)

Thus. using Eq. (8.83), we obtain:

M, = -EI (8.85)
KGA dx

Now, rurning our attention to the FBD of Timoshenko-beam element, as shown in Figure 8.14(b),
we note that force balance equation along the vertical direction, neglecting
the small obliquities of the
shear forces, gives the same result as that we got for the Euler-Bernoulli beam element, i.e. Eq. (8.52).
Thus, once again, we get:

aVpAa?
dx
(8.86)

where m= mass per unit length of beam =pA.

have to include the rotational
different
However, the moment-balance equation will be now as we

mechanics that for a slab-like

inertia of the beam element. As it is known from the results of rigid body
mass-moment of inertia about an
element of homogenous material with uniform small thickness, t, the
axis perpendicular to the element is given by:

Mass-moment of inertia = plt (8.87)

where I area-moment of inertia of the element about axis, which is perpendicular to the plane of
an
the slab-like element. Accordingly, the inertia-couple for the beam element in Figure 8.14 is given by:

Inertia-couple = (pldx)- (8.88)

Thus, now the moment-balance equation gives us:

M+ dx
de|-M, -V,de-(pAd»Stpld=o
Higher-order small term

or

aM d -V,do plds +
dx
Or

Mp
dx
=V, (8.89)

eliminating 0VJox berween Egs. (8.85) and (8.86),

we get:
Now,

-E d +
pEI (8.90)
M, =

KG 2
Now, differentiating Eq. (8.89) with respect to X, we get:

+(pl)(p =

aVpAa
dx

Using Eq. (8.84),

(M,)--E dr ( / , ) = p 4d

be written
Using Eq. (8.90), the above equation can as:

,0v pEl8'

dx - KG 82 E ar-E KG pA
or

p A E _ pEI p'i8'
dx KGaxor2 dx)r? KG Or
or

pAS+E + = 0 (8.91)
KGxo2 KG dr
Note the first two terms within parenthesis represent our well-known Euler-Bernoulli equation. Equa*
tion (8.91) is known as the 7imoshenko-beam equation for free-vibration, which takes care of the rota
tional inertia and the effect of shear deformation of the beam during is free vibration. Later in Exampie
8.18, we shall consider, in detail, Eq. (8.91) for a simply-supported beam.