DESIGN OF VISCO-ELASTIC SUPPORTS FOR TIMOSHENKO CANTILEVER BEAMS

Abstract

The appropriate design of supports, upon which beams are usually placed as structural components in many engineering scenarios, has substantial significance in terms of both structural efficacy and cost factors. When beams experience various dynamic vibration effects, it is crucial to contemplate appropriate support systems that will effectively adapt to these vibrations. The present work investigates the most suitable support configuration for a cantilever beam, including viscoelastic supports across different vibration modes. Within this particular framework, a cantilever beam is simulated using beam finite elements. The beam is positioned on viscoelastic supports, which are represented by simple springs and damping elements. These supports are then included in the overall structural model. The equation of motion for the beam is first formulated in the temporal domain and then converted to the frequency domain via the use of the Fourier Transform. The basic equations used in the frequency domain are utilized to establish the dynamic characteristics of the beam by means of transfer functions. The determination of the ideal stiffness and damping coefficients of the viscoelastic components is achieved by minimizing the absolute acceleration at the free end of the beam. In order to minimize the objective function associated with acceleration, the nonlinear equations derived from Lagrange multipliers are solved using a gradient-based technique. The governing equations of the approach need partial derivatives with respect to design variables. Consequently, analytical derivative equations are formulated for both the stiffness and damping parameters. The present work introduces a concurrent optimization approach for both stiffness and damping. Passive constraints are established inside the optimization problem to impose restrictions on the lower and higher boundaries of the stiffness and damping coefficients. On the other hand, active constraints are used to ascertain the specific values of the overall stiffness and damping coefficients. The efficacy of the established approach in estimating the ideal spring and damping coefficients of viscoelastic supports and its ability to provide optimal support solutions for various vibration modes have been shown via comparative experiments with prior research.