Vibration of a beam excited by a moving oscillator considering separation and reattachment

The vibration of a beam excited by a moving oscillator is an extensively studied moving-load problem. It has usually been assumed in the previous studies of the moving-oscillator problem that the contact between the moving oscillator and the supporting beam structure is constantly maintained. This restrictive assumption is removed in this paper. Furthermore, a reattachment condition of the moving oscillator to the beam after separation is proposed. Simulated numerical examples indicate that for certain values of system parameters and travelling speeds of the moving oscillator separation can occur frequently and even more than once during its travel, and there is normally a ‘jump’ in the velocity of the beam at the instant of reattachment.