AN EXACT METHOD FOR THE FREE VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF TIMOSHENKO–KELVIN BEAMS WITH OSCILLATORS

In this paper, a modern exact method is proposed for solving the problem of free vibrations of a Timoshenko-type viscoelastic beam with discrete rigid bodies, connected to the beam by means of viscoelastic constraints. The phenomenon of free vibrations of this discrete–continuous system is described by a set of three partial and two subsystem ordinary differential equations with generalized boundary conditions and initial conditions. Vector notation of the equations allows one to identify the self-adjoint linear operators of inertia, stiffness and damping. In this case, these operators are not homothetic hence a separation of variables in this set of equations is possible only in a complex Hilbert space. Such separation of variables leads to ordinary differential equations of motion with respect to time as well as to a set of three ordinary differential equations with respect to a spatial variable and two subsystem algebraical equations. Solution of the boundary-value problem was carried out in the classical way, but its results are complex conjugated. Using these results and the fundamental principle, describing the orthogonality property of complex eigenvectors, the problem of free vibrations of the system with arbitrary initial conditions has been finally solved exactly.