Analytical formulation and evaluation for free vibration of naturally curved and twisted beams

An analytical study for free vibration of naturally curved and twisted beams with uniform cross-sectional shapes is carried out using spatial curved beam theory based on the Washizuʹs static model. In the governing equations of motion of the beams, all displacement functions and the generalized warping coordinate are defined at the centroid axis and also the effects of rotary inertia, transverse shear deformations and torsion-related warping are included in the proposed model. Explicit analytical expressions are derived for the vibrating mode shapes of a curved, bending-torsional-shearing coupled beam under clamped–clamped boundary condition with the help of symbolic computing package Mathematica, and a process of searching is used to determine the natural frequencies. Comparisons of the present results with the FEM results using beam elements in ANSYS code show good accuracy in computation and validity of the model. Further, the present model is used for cylindrical helical springs with circular cross-section fixed at both ends, and the results indicate that the natural frequencies agree well with the theoretical and experimental results available.