Vibration frequency of prestress slender beams resting on Winkler elastic foundation

Abstract

The present paper investigates the vibration frequency of slender beams prestressing by axial force and resting on an elastic Winkler foundation by the finite element method. A beam element taking the effects of both the prestress and foundation support into account is formulated using the expression of strain energy. Using the developed element, the natural frequencies of beams having various boundary conditions are computed for different values of the axial force and foundation stiffness. The influence of the axial force and the foundation stiffness on the frequency of the beams is investigated. The effect of partial support by the foundation and the type of mass matrices on the vibration frequency of the beam is also studied and highlighted.