Dynamic behaviour of laterally loaded pultruted composite beams

This paper discusses a detailed study carried out on vibration characteristics of transversely loaded pultruted composite beams. A considerable discrepancy was noticed in the measured vibration of the transversely loaded beam and the calculated natural frequencies of the beam using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. It has been observed that the natural frequencies of the beam were increased after lateral loading. A simplified mathematical model was derived for the equation of motion in order to determine the vibration characteristics of the loaded beam. The discontinuities introduced at the loading points were modelled as a combination of translational and torsional springs. The predictions of the model have demonstrated that it has sufficiently captured the dynamic behaviour of a laterally loaded beam. A comparison of model prediction and the experimental results is presented.