FINITE ELEMENT EVALUATION OF THE DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF BEAMS UNDER UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED MOVING LOADS

Abstract

A detailed analysis of vibration of beams under uniformly distributed moving loads using finite element        method is carried out. The material properties, throughout the length of the structures under consid-        eration are assumed to be prismatic. The weak form of the equation describing the vibration of beams        is obtained using Galerkin’s Weighted Residual Method (GWRM) while the elements stiffness, mass,        and centripetal acceleration matrices as well as the load vectors were derived. Newmark’s integration        method is used to obtain the dynamic response of beams under uniformly distributed moving loads.        Numerical examples are presented to show the effects of :(i) velocity of the moving load; (ii) load’s        length on the dynamic response of beam under uniformly distributed moving loads.